Halina Eysymont went through various stages in her creative journey: from designing textiles for the linen industry to abstract matter painting, she also created landscape-like studies of light and colour. In the 1970s, she turned her interest to yet another topic: fascinated by commonplace items and scenes from everyday life, she presented them figuratively. Those works were influenced by hyperrealism: they are so realistic that they look like photographs, with her characteristic choice of framing, often fragmentary in nature. The Evening presents figures, buildings and tree canopies painted with precision, even if without detail, and the colours are applied in a flat fashion. Strong contrasts between light and shade, the gradation of tones in the dark sky, and soft patches of colour are a form of subjective expression. Eysymont’s paintings that show the world in daylight have a reportage-like quality, while her nocturnal canvases express a meditative acceptance of reality. As she put it herself: “In the world around me, I look for the banal everyday items, which are remarkable in their ordinariness. Quite possibly, this could be my way of seeking peace and footing in the constant anxiety and variability.”

Ewa Skolimowska