Ironia (Irony)

As an active opponent of the communist authorities in Poland, Zielinski’s subject matter is rooted in the social reality of Poland as an ally of the USSR. His artistic vocabulary combines the influences of the Polish Poster School with those of American Pop Art  in the 1960s and 1970s. The reality Zieliński portrays is polysemic, polymorphic and oneiric in order to explore themes such as national identity, religion and politics, moving away from the post-impressionist art of the Polish academies. His Pop approach is characterised by a critique of the communist and catholic regime rather than consumerism, appropriating the propaganda iconography of Socialist Realism to ironically express his dissent against the establishment.

Ironia (Irony, 1970) depicts a stylised green eagle spreading its wings over a red sun; the two motifs form an eye in the pale face of the background “sky”, with a smiling mouth and short moustache in the lower left corner. This painting is two things: a cropped portrait of a quarter-face in close-up and a landscape with a setting sun.

The artist depicts a Pop-style female face using the national symbol of Poland (the eagle), and also refering to the flag of the Polish People's Republic (the huge white teeth on a red background in the foreground are reminiscent of the national colours), thereby illustrating his taste for contradiction: the abstract and the figurative, the uncouth and the eloquent, erudite symbolism and sexual linguistics. 

This work was first presented by the Pinault Collection in the exhibition « Forever Sixties » at the Couvent des Jacobins in Rennes (2023)