DOI article:
Styrna, Natasza: Z prowincji do metropolii – przypadek Saszy Blondera
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44918#0173
it must be said that the decision to leave most probably saved his life, and let him
avoid the fate of most of his people during World War ii.
The tonę that permeates his memoirs written during the war is very pessimistic.
The situation in which he found himself has overwhelmed him. Sometimes even
painting comes with difficulty. However, after a worse time, better times arrive,
and the works he then creates are wonderful. The artist infuses them with all the
anxiety that has accompanied him in the last decade of his life. There is brutality
and violence in them. He achieves the height of expression that he had not achieved
before (see: Fig. 9-12). Forms are sometimes thrown on canvas in such a simplified
way that they become barely recognisable; the features of people are deprived of any
embellishments, twisted in grimaces of sadness, discouragement, and stubbornness.
Splashes of red penetrate the canvas like open wounds. Very often we recognise in
the paintings the figures of the painter s wife and children: Louise with a focused
expression on her face, busy with mundane activities - the travail of everyday life,
with children on her arm or playing near. They lack the tenderness that one would
expect in the images of the closest people. Attachment to wife and children is
demonstrated, rather than in the way the subjects are captured, by their constant
presence in his paintings, by the painter accompanying them with his brush in their
most intimate moments.
In his works, the distance towards the surroundings was always felt, a certain
irony, a joking and perhaps malicious attitude, especially when he portrayed his
colleagues from the First Kraków Group. This attitude only faded away when
he sketched the Podolian landscapes, vast expanses of land stretching into the
horizon, covered with a layer of snów and ice, bathed in cool light. He revealed
his true emotions in those, morę than in any other works.
In the 1940S France, his attitude towards reality is changing. Humour disappears
from Blonders work; the strings that he now moves bring out morę pain. As ever,
he paints many self-portraits. He never had pity for himself. Now we see a man who
has aged, and it is elear that time has changed him not only externally (see: Fig. 13).
If the lack of illusions about reality was a certain attitude that he put on in his youth,
by now it had become his real, true experience.
He survived the war, and he reached maturę age. The passage of time and the life
experience that he acquired did not bring him relief. Regardless of the dilemmas he
faced, he always found the same escape from them - his painting. Arrangements
of lines, pulsating in his paintings, of colour splashes, lights and shades, absorbed
him morę than life itself. But the latter did not let him quite forget about itself;
along with all its emotions, it invaded the canvas, deprived of easy grace, but also
enthralling with its sincerity and strength.
Many questions will remain unanswered. What problems were plaguing him?
Was he thinking about seeing Chortkiv again? Or maybe he tried to suppress such
desires, mindful of the fact that many choices were already out of his reach? The
map of Europę looked different than before the war, he had two children, and they
were the only family he had left. His wife, apparently, well understood and accepted
his passion for painting. In the spring of 1949, the couple and their children finally
moved to Paris. He had dreamed about it, having stayed for many years in the south
of France. As his daughter Helene recalls, returning to the city after such a lengthy
time brought him a lot of joy. Alas, the good times did not last long, the artist died
in an accident shortly thereafter, on July 14,1949. >
11. Sasza Blonder / Andre
Blondel, Reclining nudę, oil
on plywood, 1945, Helene
Feydy-Blondel collection.
12. Sasza Blonder / Andre
Blondel, Mother with two
children, oil on plywood,
1947, Marc Blondel’s
collection.
-> see p. 160
13. Sasza Blonder / Andre
Blondel, Self-portrait, oil
on plywood, 1945, Helene
Feydy-Blondel collection.
14. Sasza Blonder, Salinelles,
summer 1944, photo from
the collection of Helene
Feydy-Blondel and Marc
Blondel.
see p. 161
From provinces to the metropolis - the case of Sasza Blonder
171
avoid the fate of most of his people during World War ii.
The tonę that permeates his memoirs written during the war is very pessimistic.
The situation in which he found himself has overwhelmed him. Sometimes even
painting comes with difficulty. However, after a worse time, better times arrive,
and the works he then creates are wonderful. The artist infuses them with all the
anxiety that has accompanied him in the last decade of his life. There is brutality
and violence in them. He achieves the height of expression that he had not achieved
before (see: Fig. 9-12). Forms are sometimes thrown on canvas in such a simplified
way that they become barely recognisable; the features of people are deprived of any
embellishments, twisted in grimaces of sadness, discouragement, and stubbornness.
Splashes of red penetrate the canvas like open wounds. Very often we recognise in
the paintings the figures of the painter s wife and children: Louise with a focused
expression on her face, busy with mundane activities - the travail of everyday life,
with children on her arm or playing near. They lack the tenderness that one would
expect in the images of the closest people. Attachment to wife and children is
demonstrated, rather than in the way the subjects are captured, by their constant
presence in his paintings, by the painter accompanying them with his brush in their
most intimate moments.
In his works, the distance towards the surroundings was always felt, a certain
irony, a joking and perhaps malicious attitude, especially when he portrayed his
colleagues from the First Kraków Group. This attitude only faded away when
he sketched the Podolian landscapes, vast expanses of land stretching into the
horizon, covered with a layer of snów and ice, bathed in cool light. He revealed
his true emotions in those, morę than in any other works.
In the 1940S France, his attitude towards reality is changing. Humour disappears
from Blonders work; the strings that he now moves bring out morę pain. As ever,
he paints many self-portraits. He never had pity for himself. Now we see a man who
has aged, and it is elear that time has changed him not only externally (see: Fig. 13).
If the lack of illusions about reality was a certain attitude that he put on in his youth,
by now it had become his real, true experience.
He survived the war, and he reached maturę age. The passage of time and the life
experience that he acquired did not bring him relief. Regardless of the dilemmas he
faced, he always found the same escape from them - his painting. Arrangements
of lines, pulsating in his paintings, of colour splashes, lights and shades, absorbed
him morę than life itself. But the latter did not let him quite forget about itself;
along with all its emotions, it invaded the canvas, deprived of easy grace, but also
enthralling with its sincerity and strength.
Many questions will remain unanswered. What problems were plaguing him?
Was he thinking about seeing Chortkiv again? Or maybe he tried to suppress such
desires, mindful of the fact that many choices were already out of his reach? The
map of Europę looked different than before the war, he had two children, and they
were the only family he had left. His wife, apparently, well understood and accepted
his passion for painting. In the spring of 1949, the couple and their children finally
moved to Paris. He had dreamed about it, having stayed for many years in the south
of France. As his daughter Helene recalls, returning to the city after such a lengthy
time brought him a lot of joy. Alas, the good times did not last long, the artist died
in an accident shortly thereafter, on July 14,1949. >
11. Sasza Blonder / Andre
Blondel, Reclining nudę, oil
on plywood, 1945, Helene
Feydy-Blondel collection.
12. Sasza Blonder / Andre
Blondel, Mother with two
children, oil on plywood,
1947, Marc Blondel’s
collection.
-> see p. 160
13. Sasza Blonder / Andre
Blondel, Self-portrait, oil
on plywood, 1945, Helene
Feydy-Blondel collection.
14. Sasza Blonder, Salinelles,
summer 1944, photo from
the collection of Helene
Feydy-Blondel and Marc
Blondel.
see p. 161
From provinces to the metropolis - the case of Sasza Blonder
171