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Stanisław Czwartos – Western riding, 2025
Western riding by Stanisław Czwartos is a work of exceptional visual and symbolic force. The painting is a representative example of the artist’s creative method, based on combining the discipline of modular composition with multi-layered iconography. The central figure of the golden bull dominates the canvas, becoming a carrier of overlapping meanings — from the myth of the abduction of Europa, through the Brazen Bull of Phalaris as an instrument of torture, to the biblical cult of the golden calf.
Formally, the painting is striking in its sculptural precision and cool monumentality. The riders’ bodies, smooth, compact and almost metallic, evoke distant associations with the aesthetics of Tamara de Lempicka, particularly her way of modelling figures as strong, synthetic and polished forms. In Czwartos’s work, however, this elegance is charged with unease. The beauty of form does not lead to harmony, but to an image of civilisational tension.
The painting also contains echoes of Andrzej Wróblewski’s art: the object-like treatment of the figure, modular construction and a vision of the human being caught in the mechanisms of history. The motif of headless figures, frequently recurring in Stanisław Czwartos’s painting, is especially significant. It may be read as a sign of lost continuity, a rupture with tradition and a symbolic severance from ancestral culture.
The titular Western riding becomes an ironic image of a world that, despite losing its direction, continues in a frantic rush. The golden bull — at once an idol, a mythological beast and a symbol of violence — carries the riders through a dynamic, almost rodeo-like scene. This is figurative painting that goes beyond narrative. It builds a dense, ambiguous commentary on the present: a world seduced by its own symbols, accelerating while becoming increasingly incapable of self-control.
Western riding is a large-scale painting with a strong physical presence and significant collector appeal. It combines classical references, a powerful composition and the recognisable artistic language of Stanisław Czwartos, resulting in a work that is both visually striking and intellectually demanding.
Stanisław Czwartos
Western riding, 2025
Technique: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 170 × 190 cm
Category: painting
Art movement: figurative art
