PRZED WIECZOREM 

Editor: This oil painting is titled "PRZED WIECZOREM" by Kazimierz Mikulski. I get a playful, almost secretive, vibe from the painting—with the abstracted foliage and birds. What strikes you when you look at it? Curator: I am immediately drawn to the way Mikulski engages with ideas around visibility and power. The figure peering out from the leaves brings to mind histories of surveillance, of being watched and unseen. Editor: Surveillance? That's an interesting angle. I mostly saw it as a kind of childlike hiding. Curator: Well, childhood itself is so often wrapped up in societal power structures. The act of hiding can be a form of resistance, a temporary escape from those structures, wouldn't you agree? Especially in the context of modernism where artists sought to break free from traditional representations and societal norms. Mikulski's painting uses simple geometric shapes to create natural forms, questioning traditional perspective, similar to work from Cubism or Constructivism. How do the seemingly benign aspects – the plants and the birds– complicate that reading for you? Editor: I see what you mean, the artist transforms simple elements into parts of a social landscape. Curator: Precisely! Consider how landscape art has historically been used to depict ownership and control over land. This painting, by abstracting and flattening those forms, subverts those traditional power dynamics. Editor: So it's not just a pretty scene. It's challenging how we see ourselves in relation to nature, and who gets to be seen. I definitely see a layered story within those simple forms now! Curator: Absolutely. These visual vocabularies are full of potential political connotations, prompting a dialogue between form, subject, and sociopolitical awareness.