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Wincenty Czwartos – Funeral Wreath, 2025
Funeral Wreath by Wincenty Czwartos is a monumental oil painting from 2025, in which the artist confronts the dignity of the Baroque equestrian portrait with the austere code of the modernist avant-garde. The central figure of a young rider on a vivid blue horse dominates the composition, creating tension between a heroic pose, the ceremonial character of the image and the premonition of a tragic end.
Formally, the work operates through strong colouristic and symbolic contrast. The intense blue of the horse is not merely an aesthetic device. It may be read as a direct dialogue with the work of Andrzej Wróblewski, in whose painting this colour becomes a sign of death, absence and existential rupture. The blue horse, though visually striking, is therefore marked by an aura of loss.
The figurative character of the scene is interrupted by an almost abstract detail: the geometric form of the saddle, divided into strict rectangular fields. This element evokes associations with the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich, particularly with the icon of modernist reduction — the black square. In Czwartos’s painting, however, the avant-garde sign is absorbed into the structure of a classical image. This subversive juxtaposition suggests the symbolic taming of the avant-garde by tradition.
The titular funeral wreath surrounds the scene, functioning as both a decorative and ominous frame. The floral garland recalls the still lifes of the old masters, yet its ornamental character is disturbed by rhythmically repeated motifs resembling arrowheads, projectiles or flashes of explosion. In this way, the decorative border is transformed into a sign of violence, mourning and inevitable threat.
The young rider, frozen in a proud gesture, becomes a universal figure — a symbol of a generation sent to the front and transformed into a posthumous image of heroism. His pose refers to the tradition of the representative equestrian portrait, yet in the context of the blue horse, the mourning garland and the modernist allusions, it takes on a bitterly ironic tone. Glory is intertwined with sacrifice, and painterly splendour with the premonition of death.
Funeral Wreath is a work of strong visual impact and considerable symbolic density. Wincenty Czwartos combines classical references, the history of painting, a modern language of form and a contemporary reflection on war. The painting functions both as a striking figurative composition and as a bitter commentary on the political mechanisms that transform living youth into a posthumous painterly monument.
From a collector’s perspective, the work stands out through its monumental format, the artist’s recognisable visual language and its suggestive combination of decorativeness, irony and dramatic content. It is a painting of strong presence, intended for viewers seeking contemporary figurative painting rooted in tradition while remaining responsive to the current experience of history.
Wincenty Czwartos
Funeral Wreath, 2025
Technique: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 200 × 180 cm
Category: painting
Art movement: figurative art
