Poland

Maus 1

Date
2001-2015
Type of object
Painting
Technique
oil and spray on canvas
Dimensions
100 x 115
Date of acquisition
17.08.2022
Catalogue no.
1146
Additional information

Purchase from the Foksal Gallery Foundation, with funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage within the framework of the "National Collection of Contemporary Art" program, subsidized by the Municipality of Bielsko-Biała; copyright license.

Description

A picture by Wilhelm Sasnal painted in 2001 based on selected images of the comic book "Maus" by Art Spiegelman. It depicts an empty landscape painted in black and white in comic book style. What in the comic book was a piece of floor and wall is transformed into an abstract pattern suggesting a synthetic landscape formed of horizontal dotted lines saturated more and more, up to the blackness of the horizon. The sky zone is covered by a geometric grid. Two black spheres, a smaller and a larger one are placed in the center of the picture.

The author repainted the picture in 2015. At that time, the artist spray-painted scattered spoons and nails in the foreground, and added a bright spot in the background between the spheres.

The work refers to the artist's mural on the wall of the Galeria Bielska BWA made in 2001, which depicted one of the pages of the comic book "Maus" (157th page in the first edition or 159th - in the second edition).
The artist took part in the exhibition "Painting Professions" (2001) curated by Adam Szymczyk, shortly after winning the Grand Prix of the 34th National Painting Competition "Bielska Jesień" (1999).

The project depicted one of the pages of a Spiegelman comic book. Sasnal removed the characters from it, leaving only the captions in the balloons. The drawing concerns a scene in which Art Spiegelman's father, who has been handed over to the Gestapo, is led down one of the streets of Bielsko straight to prison. He passes the factory he owned before the war, following the street where he used to live.

Bibliography

– Pełna Kultura – bielski magazyn aktualności, wrzesień 2022, reprodukcja obrazu wraz z zapowiedzią wystawy, s. 15.

Exhibitions

2021–2022 – Wilhelm Sasnal: Taki pejzaż, Muzeum POLIN, Warszawa (17.06.2021 – 10.01.2022)
2022 –  Wystawa jednego obrazu: Wilhelm Sasnal Maus 1, Klubokawiarnia Aquarium w Galerii Bielskiej (1.09–30.10.2022)
2023 – Stany przejściowe – wystawa z Kolekcji Sztuki Galerii Bielskiej BWA, Galeria Bielska BWA,  Bielsko-Biała (13.01.2023 – 03.03.2023).