20-68

20-68 by Ludmiła Popiel is an abstract composition depicting a rhythmic arrangement of wavy blue lines. Out of focus, with a black outline on a white background, they give the impression of depth and movement, deceiving our visual perception, creating an illusory space. This piece is characteristic for the artist's work from the 1960s. For Popiel the canvas was a space, where she could play with forms.Ludmiła Popiel graduated in interior design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. After graduation she moved to Koszalin with her husband Jerzy Fedorowicz, also an artist. In 1955, with a group of friends, she founded a local branch of the Association of Polish Artists. She had her hand in creating and organising the “Meetings of Artists, Scientists and Art Theorists” in Osieki near Koszalin. These plein-airs played a crucial role in the development of Polish avant-garde art, in particular performance (1967 – the first happening by Kantor and Włodzimierz Borowski) and conceptual art (1970). During her first plein-air, Popiel began to paint geometric and abstract works. At that time she began working on series of paintings (including Labirynty) using techniques characteristic of op-art, affecting human perception through the use of lines, contrasting colours and nuances of tones. The artist herself did not define her works as op-art, treating this trend rather as a tool for exploring the issue of space. Popiel explored this area until the early 1970s, at which point she turned towards thinking of art as a self-organising structure, which lives like a language, thus being closer to conceptual art.

Marlena Chybowska-Butler