#everything about Szał is unclear and dramatic

[thunderboltfire]

I thought I’ll butt in, because I’ve seen it in original! (more than once, it hangs in the gallery in Sukiennice building located on Cracow’s main square). The second reason is that’s one of the most iconic 19th century Polish paintings (there was A LOT going on in art back then, but if You mention Szał in the context of the visual art, it’s the first thing that comes to people’s minds).

Long story short, the full title is Frenzy of Exultations, which together with the strong symbolism and dream-like, almost fainting expression of the woman immediately points to an erotic meaning behind the painting.

And it honestly is striking, when seen in person - it’s monumental, almost life-sized, also some people speculated on who exactly the woman in the painting resembled (apparently there was a few candidates). The theme of sexual ecstasy, the uneven strokes of paint, the representation of symbolism, which was a new current in art, the correspondence to artist’s personal life (Podkowiński was both terminally ill at the time, and was in love with a married woman - whether it was requited or not, remains unclear) all added to how scandalous it was. It was criticised for the mistakes in anatomy, atypical composistion (worth remembering, the academic art current was still very strong), the critics wondered how someone with such a skill as Podkowiński created something which was so technically unsound and felt so unreal. Yet it had something incredibly authentic in it, and drawn people to see it. It was fascinating and was rumoured to be almost cursed due to its influence - it soon became a sort of a local manifesto of the new currents in art.

And it probably was very personal to him, seeing that at the end of its exhibition he tried to destroy it. His art took a dramatic turn - early in his career he painted mostly colorful, almost impressionistic landscapes and portraits, he was also a rather popular illustrator, one of a few young artists who actually were able to sell their works. After the exhibition of Frenzy, when his tuberculosis took turn to the worse, he turned to darker topics, reflected by his Funeral March, inspired by Chopin’s work. He died in his workshop, at the age of 28. Despite the fact that Frenzy has been meticoulously restored after his death, the marks left by the cuts on the canvas are visible to this day. One could say that altough romantism’s days were long gone by then and the art was moving past academism back to the more emotional symbolism and young art movements, in this painting’s story the mixture of emotion, madness, tragedy and scandal shows how fin-de-siecle was really similar to romantism.

‘Frenzy’ by Wladyslaw Podkowinski, 1894