Ewa Juszkiewicz
As part of the Blanca and Borja Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection exhibition programme, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza presents a monographic exhibition of works by Ewa Juszkiewicz (Gdańsk, Poland, 1984), marking the artist’s first solo museum presentation. Curated by Guillermo Solana in close collaboration with the artist, this show brings together a carefully selected group of over twenty paintings.
In her work, Juszkiewicz reinterprets the historical traditions of female portraiture, reframing the visual tropes of classical European painting and engaging critically with canonical representations of feminine beauty. Employing a refined technique and a visual language that echoes the aesthetics of her source material, she combines a traditional painterly approach with subversive gestures. Her compositions disrupt the conventions of portraiture: the sitters’ faces are obscured by elaborate arrangements of fabrics, hairstyles, fruit or vegetation, drawing on a Surrealist sensibility while reconfiguring the genre.
By deconstructing and reimagining women portrayed in historical painting, Juszkiewicz repositions these images within a contemporary context. Her work examines how femininity has been shaped in European painting, where women have often been defined through ideals of beauty and decorum. In her paintings, the figures elude fixed interpretations, opening the image to multiple readings.
Juszkiewicz has exhibited at leading international institutions, including the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Centre Pompidou-Metz; the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; the Museo Picasso Málaga; and the National Museum of China, Beijing, among others. Her work is held in major museum collections, including the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Albertina Museum, Vienna; the Long Museum, Shanghai; and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
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