Barbara Pniewska (1923-1988), Untitled, 1972

Own technique, relief, sheet metal, plywood, signed on the reverse: 'pniewska 72'; on the back a copy of a bill from The Berenson Gallery (Florida), 1978.

Barbara Pniewska was a Polish metalworker who created avant-garde reliefs using sheet metal, nails and boards. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and also studied in Krakow. Daughter of architect Bohdan Pniewski. She participated in the Exhibition of Young Visual Arts at the Warsaw Arsenal in 1955. Since 1959, the artist was associated with the Krzywe Koło Gallery in Warsaw - the first gallery in Poland after the Stalinist period whose artistic program was not subject to Socialist Realism. In 1961, the gallery organized her solo exhibition, during which Pniewska presented her paintings. In 1967, Pniewska presented thirteen of her works under the common title "Closed Form in Space" at Hamilton Galleries in London. These works, which are reliefs, show abstract compositions set in aluminum panels. One of these works is currently in the collection of the National Trust in London. Her works are in collections abroad, including the Oppenheim Collection of Modern Polish Art in Los Angeles.