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Ryszard Woźniak – Icarus (Dragonfly), 2020
Ryszard Woźniak – Icarus (Dragonfly), 2020 is an acrylic painting on canvas measuring 100 × 81 cm. The work belongs to the field of abstraction and reveals a lyrical, poetic dimension of the artist’s practice, in which sign, colour and organic form create a space of visual lightness and metaphorical tension.
Description of the painting
The composition is based on an intense, vibrating background in shades of green, turquoise, blue and luminous yellow. The multilayered painterly structure creates the impression of dense, living matter — evoking an underwater depth, sunlit forest undergrowth or an abstract space of biological microcosm.
Against this expressive background, the artist places black, flat forms and thin, calligraphic lines. These elements resemble pictograms, signs, wings, limbs or fragments of an organic construction. With their sharp contours and graphic precision, they appear to levitate above the surface of the canvas, forming an autonomous visual alphabet.
Abstraction, sign and lightness
Icarus (Dragonfly) shows the evolution of Ryszard Woźniak’s painterly language towards lyrical abstraction. The weight of social and political metaphors, associated with earlier areas of his work, gives way here to synthesis, lightness and poetic condensation.
The black forms are not unambiguous representations; they function on the border between figuration and pure sign. The dragonfly of the title may be read as a symbol of delicacy, ephemerality and biological fragility, while the reference to Icarus introduces the themes of flight, risk, fall and the crossing of limits.
Artistic context
The composition contains references to the biomorphic imagination of Joan Miró and the tradition of surrealist dream imagery. As in the Catalan artist’s work, restrained line, organic forms and suspended signs create a structure balanced between image, symbol and dream.
The thin, spider-like lines connecting the black shapes evoke associations with Miró’s Constellations, as well as with the mobile sculptures of Alexander Calder. The painting suggests a state of dynamic equilibrium — the forms appear fragile, mobile and precisely arranged at the same time.
Technique and colour
The work is executed in acrylic on canvas. Acrylic allows the artist to achieve intensity of colour, sharpness of contour and the effect of a luminous, pulsating surface. Green and turquoise build the depth of the background, while the black signs introduce contrast, rhythm and compositional discipline.
In Icarus (Dragonfly), Woźniak combines painterly expression with graphic precision. As a result, the painting retains the energy of spontaneous gesture while maintaining a clear structure of signs.
Artwork details
Artist: Ryszard Woźniak
Title: Icarus (Dragonfly) / Ikar (Ważka)
Year: 2020
Category: painting
Art movement: abstraction
Technique: acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 100 × 81 cm
Purchasing the artwork
Icarus (Dragonfly) is a strong proposition for collectors interested in contemporary abstraction, recent Polish painting and the more lyrical, sign-based dimension of Ryszard Woźniak’s work. For availability, price or additional information about the painting, please contact us.
