Oh, Bébé!

Wojciech Tuleya Françoise Sagan Marcel Proust Balthus Rainer Maria Rilke By Wojciech Tuleya Françoise Sagan Marcel Proust Balthus Rainer Maria Rilke

Katarzyna Karpowicz

The current exhibition by Katarzyna Karpowicz in Galeria Promocyjna is entitled Ludzkie historie [“People’s stories”]. The title is very fitting, as each painting by the artist urges the viewer to guess, to build a narrative.

We invite you to visit the exhibition, while presenting stories hidden in the paintings available now in Galeria ART. Eight works, eight tales, nine girls and one cat.

When speaking about young heroines of Karpowicz’s paintings, Balthus, Proust, or Saganka come to mind. Girls in bloom, entering life, standing on the verge of childhood and adulthood are fascinating figures, with mysterious worlds hidden within, a bit complicated, a bit trivial. “For me, adolescent girls are a symbol”, Balthus said once. “I will never manage to paint a woman. The beauty of growing up is more interesting. The future is written in the period of adolescence. A woman has already found her place in the world, an adolescent girl not yet. A woman’s body is already finished. The mystery is gone”.

Several classical quotes fit these paintings perfectly.

Katarzyna Karpowicz
French lesson, Oil on canvas, 73 x 92 centimeters [Price: PLN 8500]

To some the voice of the 50s generation


To some the voice of the 50s generation, Brigitte Bardot of literature. To others a petty capitalist, a hotel existential. The young writer Francoise Quirez created the heroine of her first novel (…)

To some the voice of the 50s generation, Brigitte Bardot of literature. To others a petty capitalist, a hotel existential. The young writer Francoise Quirez created the heroine of her first novel “Hello, sadness” in her own image. “All my life I shall persistently write about love, loneliness and passion between people I know”, declared Francoise Sagan. “The rest is of no interest to me”.

Katarzyna Karpowicz
My black cat, Oil on canvas, 40 x 50 centimeters [Price: PLN 5500]

Cats are cats


„Cats are cats, and that is all”, said Rainer Maria Rilke. „Their world is the world of cats in every (…)

„Cats are cats, and that is all”, said Rainer Maria Rilke. „Their world is the world of cats in every inch”.

Katarzyna Karpowicz
English weather, Oil on canvas, 50 x 60 centimeters [Price: PLN 6500]

All becomes wearisome, my angel


„All becomes wearisome, my angel, this is the law of nature. It is not my fault”, Balthus wrote down this prophetic sentence from “Dangerous Liaisons” in his notebook when he was twenty years (…)

„All becomes wearisome, my angel, this is the law of nature. It is not my fault”, Balthus wrote down this prophetic sentence from “Dangerous Liaisons” in his notebook when he was twenty years old.

Katarzyna Karpowicz
Night correspondence, Oil on canvas, 60 x 80 centimeters [Price: PLN 6500]

Oh, Bébé


„Oh, Bébé”, Balthus writes to Antoinette. “Why play this comedy? Can you try to forget me? Can I forget my soul? Will I write like always or differently or at all – will it change anything? (…)

„Oh, Bébé”, Balthus writes to Antoinette. “Why play this comedy? Can you try to forget me? Can I forget my soul? Will I write like always or differently or at all – will it change anything? Only in the last case, it would be an unacceptable and unnecessary blow to me. Whether I tell you repeatedly how much I love you, or I do not say anything, you know”.

Katarzyna Karpowicz
Look, Oil on canvas, 50 x 60 centimeters [Price: PLN 6500]

But what is it all about?


“But what is it all about? A woman loved a man. A simple story, one should not make a tragedy out of it”, says Dominique, the protagonist of “A Certain Smile” by (…)

“But what is it all about? A woman loved a man. A simple story, one should not make a tragedy out of it”, says Dominique, the protagonist of “A Certain Smile” by Sagan.

Katarzyna Karpowicz
Feeling the storm coming, Oil on canvas, 100 x 100 centimeters [Price: PLN 8500]

Wonderful little girl


„Wonderful little girl, why are you so far away?”, asks Balthus his beloved Antoinette. “Dear Bébé, you were with me already when I myself was a child – free, strong, bad. “Drinking in (…)

„Wonderful little girl, why are you so far away?”, asks Balthus his beloved Antoinette. “Dear Bébé, you were with me already when I myself was a child – free, strong, bad. “Drinking in life and laughing at insults, I changed the world around me in a proper celebration”.

Katarzyna Karpowicz
Rainy day, Oil on canvas, 81 x 100 centimeters [Price: PLN 7500]

I found her very beautiful


„I found her very beautiful”, says the narrator about his friends’ daughter in the last volume of “In Search of Lost Time”. “Still full of promise, smiling, shaped by those years I have (…)

„I found her very beautiful”, says the narrator about his friends’ daughter in the last volume of “In Search of Lost Time”. “Still full of promise, smiling, shaped by those years I have lost, she reminded me of my Youth”.

Katarzyna Karpowicz
The banality of evil, Oil on canvas, 65 x 81 centimeters [Price: PLN 7500]

To me Hello, sadness seems funny


“To me Hello, sadness seems funny”, said Sagan years later. “It reminds me of a stage in my life. I would not change one word in (…)

“To me Hello, sadness seems funny”, said Sagan years later. “It reminds me of a stage in my life. I would not change one word in it”.



Selected works

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