Jadwiga Maziarska, Transfert, 1980, acrylic on canvas, 77 x 58 cm

Jadwiga Maziarska (1913–2003) was affiliated with the artistic association Grupa Krakowska [Kraków Group] and was primarily involved in painting; she also created photographic collages, compositions from scraps of material, and spatial compositions. She collaborated with theaters as a stage designer. She was friends with Jonasz Stern and Erna Rosenstein. Her works are in prominent Polish art collections. In 1984, she had a solo exhibition at Galeria Studio in Warsaw.

Characteristically, she created relief-like paintings using experimental wax techniques and assemblage. In her work, she made use of microscopic photography from physics, chemistry, and medicine, as well as press photos, the motifs and fragments of which she transformed, distilled and duplicated. Maziarska was interested in internal movement, displacement at the level of matter and the circulation of energy, but also in disorder and deformation.

The painting Transfert was created in 1980 and is probably inspired by photography. It depicts delicate springy structures on a white background running across a vertical rectangle. The title comes from French expressions relating to transference: genetic, psychological, financial, infectious disease transmission, but also information theory and practice. “Transfert” is never empty, even if it is illegible. In the 1960s, molecular biologists discovered that deoxyribonucleic acid chains are composed of combinations of repetitive elements, subject to a system that can be described as syntax. Maziarska’s images also give the impression of a notation or fragment of text, and viewing them involuntarily turns into a reading process, into an attempt to crack an unknown code.

Dorota Jarecka