Rain palace

Erna Rosenstein was associated with a circle of Warsaw and Kraków artists, although it can be concluded that the latter group more influenced her artistic identity. She belonged to the Kraków Group, among others. She was interested in surrealism, which became only the driving force behind the search for her own creative path. At the time, she concentrated on trying to convey her life experiences, often very tragic ones, such as her stay in the Lviv ghetto, the death of her parents when she escaped from it, and later her long hiding, in paintings on the borderline between dream and reality. There are several works by the artist in the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin. The latest of them dates from 1976 and is entitled Pałac deszczu [The Rain Palace]. It is an abstract composition made of blue lines on a grey background. In the centre, on the axis of the painting, there will be straight lines and spiral sequences which form an elongated, vertical rectangle. From it, garlands and wavy lines develop into an almost symmetrical decorative form, forming large and irregular circles below and on the sides. The structure of the thickly applied paint plays an important role, showing the artist's struggle with the painting plane. The blue lines are applied to give the impression of interweaving the canvas with a thick, glossy thread. In this scenery, processed by the artist's imagination, raindrops are arranged in architectural shapes, i.e. a palace, which by the symmetry and depth of perspective suggests an invitation to enter a lyrical space. In the 1970s, Rosenstein created several works in which she used lines to create geometric structures, sometimes disguising architectural forms (Niebo bardzo ciężkie [Very Heavy Sky], 1976).

Beata Małgorzata Wolska