Alfred LENICA (1899-1977), Scream I [Scream in the Garden], 1961

oil, canvas, 100 x 134 cm;
Signed p. d.: Lenica (engraved in the paint layer); signed, dated and described on the reverse: A. LENICA /
WARSAW / 1961 and 134 x 100 / 'KRZYK I' next to No. 10 [in circle], below No. 12/10.

PROVENENCE:
- Painting purchased from the artist's legacy in 1999;
- Private collection, Poland.

EXHIBITED:
- Krzysztofory Gallery, Cracow, 1965 [as Cry in the Garden];
- Alfred Lenica, National Museum, Wrocław, 2014.


LISTED IN THE EXHIBITION CATALOG:
- Alfred Lenica. Painting, CBWA Zachęta, Warsaw, 1974, cat. no. 294.

REPRODUCED:
- Alfred Lenica, exhibition catalog at the National Museum, Wrocław, 2014, p. 159.

Alfred Lenica is recognized as the author of Poland's first
Tashist canvas - the painting "Farby w ruch" from 1949.
He was one of the founding members of the Poznan art group
4F+R (Form, Paint, Texture, Fantasy + Realism). W 1948
He participated in the First Exhibition of Modern Art in Krakow.
A native of Poznań, the painter, a violinist by training, smuggled
in his artistic work a love of color harmony, which, as
Bożena Kowalska recalls, shaped the emotions of the viewer: "And sometimes
the harmony of colors alone can accurately convey the mood of joy, sadness or
of wartime horror, acting on viewers with great suggestion." The painter forms
painting structure by means of freely dripping paints, splashes,
splashes. He also experiments with other materials and techniques,
such as lacquers and collage. To achieve a distinctive way of painting
painting he uses tools that allow for precise selection of the
already applied paint, thus creating linear, free-form compositions. The 1940s and 1950s were the peak of creative
and innovative formal solutions in the creation of the painter's works.
Alfred Lenica's paintings intensify the viewer's empirical experience.