Marta Czok - Danae

The human figure has always been at the center of artistic research. Since the classical age, the naturalistic rendering of human anatomy has been a primary goal of painters and sculptors throughout history. The representation of the female figure is an expression of this aspiration, which spans all eras and stylistic movements. Indeed, in addition to the naturalistic interpretations of the Renaissance and various classicisms, which aimed for a truthful and detailed representation of the human body, the female figure has also been a central theme in the new aesthetic concepts brought about by the historical avant-garde movements, such as Cubism, Expressionism, and Surrealism. The female figure is central to Marta Czok's artistic production, especially in the more expressionistic phase of her pictorial research.

This work represents a phase in which Marta Czok's artistic language still tends to be expressionist, but one can already see the first traces of those partly satirical, partly existential allegories that will shape her current objective language. The expressionism of these works, in fact, always rests on a simplification of sensory data, but at the same time, we note a certain exaltation of plastic values, discernible in the full, concrete forms of the subjects. Furthermore, these full volumes are inserted into a complex and non-univocal space, constructed on multiple directives and points of view. It is an almost Baconian space, which reaffirms the existential nature of this phase of Marta Czok's painting. This existentialism is also confirmed by the quality of the painterly approach, still vibrant and dynamic, characterized in these works by a predominance of warm tones.

An Englishwoman of Polish descent, Marta Czok was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1947. The following year, she moved with her family to London, where she completed her studies at St Martin's School of Art, participating repeatedly in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Over the past 35 years, she has exhibited her work throughout Europe and America. Among her most recent public exhibitions are Mother Rome at the Carlo Bilotti Museum in Rome in 2016; the retrospective exhibition at the Castello di Calatabiano, organized by the MACS Museum in Catania; Icons&Idols, a multimedia exhibition held in 2013 at the MACRO Testaccio in Rome – La Pelanda; the solo exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute in Warsaw, which was held in April and May 2017. Marta Czok has also worked on traveling exhibitions such as the solo exhibition dedicated to children in war and the Holocaust held at Palazzo Ferrajoli (Rome), the Civic Museum of Albano and Palazzo Antico Ghetto (Padua), and the exhibition About Us, on the theme of humanity, held at Palazzo dei Papi (Viterbo), Palazzo Zuckermann (Padua), and Palazzo Zenobio (Venice). Marta Czok lives and works in Castel Gandolfo.

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