Agnieszka Żak, The power from the Major Arcana series, 2025

Contemporary Art Gallery Warsaw Skowronscy Art – Artist: Agnieszka Żak – The Artist's Work – The power from the Major Arcana series, 2025

Other works by this artist: Agnieszka Żak

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Agnieszka Żak, The power from the Major Arcana series, 2025. The painting Power, oil on canvas, 180 cm in diameter, is inspired by the eighth card of the Major Arcana tarot deck. In Barbara Moore’s Ciro Marchetti card deck, the card depicts a woman who is determined to achieve her goal; she is accompanied by a lion – a symbol of a woman’s animal instincts. These instincts neither guide nor slow her down; they are like a reserve of strength, energy and courage. The leitmotif of the composition is a red fabric embroidered with gold, white and brown flowers, the fabric that Cristobal Balenciaga chose for his dress design for Helena Rubinstein when she was at the height of her career. Many artists portrayed Helena, including Pablo Picasso, but it was the portraits she posed for Graham Sutherland in this dress that went down in history as the ones that best captured the charisma of this extraordinary woman of Jewish origin, who wandered from Kazimierz in Krakow to the very top, built a huge fortune, and repeated her success on three continents: Australia, North America and Europe. Although her path was bumpy, despite war, social class and competition, she had the courage and strength to reach for her dreams. Although, as we now know, she based her business success on a cosmetic placebo, no one can deny that in an era of male domination, she gave women what they needed most: strength, power and self-confidence.

Category: Painting

Artistic direction: Figurative art

Technique: Oil on canvas

Diameter: 180 cm

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Agnieszka Żak, “Strength” from the “Major Arcana” series, 2025 – Tarot-inspired contemporary painting and the story of Helena Rubinstein

Agnieszka Żak, painting “Strength” from the “Major Arcana” series, 2025 is a monumental oil on canvas, 180 cm in diameter, inspired by the VIII Tarot card – Strength. In the traditional Major Arcana this card symbolises courage, determination, self-control and inner power. In Ciro Marchetti’s deck, which served as a reference for the artist, we see a woman single-mindedly pursuing her goal, accompanied by a lion – the embodiment of her tamed animal instincts.

In Żak’s version the motif is transformed into a circular composition of intricately painted fabrics. At its core lies a red textile embroidered with gold, white and brown flowers – the very fabric that Cristóbal Balenciaga chose for a gown designed for Helena Rubinstein. This is a deliberate reference: the cloth becomes a symbol of charisma, elegance and resilience of one of the most remarkable women of the twentieth century.

Amid the swirling scarves we also discern the image of a lion, linking the painting back to the Tarot card and to those instincts that do not control the woman but serve as a hidden reserve of energy and courage. The work echoes the story of Helena Rubinstein – a Jewish woman from Kraków’s Kazimierz district who, through extraordinary determination, built a cosmetics empire across three continents: Australia, North America and Europe. Despite war, class barriers, competition and male dominance, she had the strength to reach for her dreams, offering other women what they needed most: a sense of worth, power and self-belief.

Agnieszka Żak’s “Strength” is therefore not only a Tarot interpretation of feminine power, but also a tribute to energy, determination and bravery that allow one to overcome adversity. The artist combines virtuosically rendered silks, vibrant oranges, reds and pinks with a rich symbolic layer, creating a painting that functions both as a sophisticated collector’s piece and a visual manifesto of female empowerment.

Keywords: Agnieszka Żak “Strength” painting, Tarot-inspired contemporary art, Major Arcana Strength, Helena Rubinstein in art, Cristóbal Balenciaga dress fabric, woman and lion symbol, Polish contemporary painter, large round oil painting.