Teresa Pągowska's dreamy interpretations of the female form The artist is on view in London for the first time . (This link opens in a new tab).

By Sofia Hallström 

Newspaper cut-outs, collaged works on paper, and oil paintings on unprimed canvases come together in bold interpretations of female form, animals, dreamscapes, and interspecies figures that define the work of Polish artist Teresa Pągowska (1926-2007).

‘Shadow Self’ in Thaddaeus Ropac’s 18th-century townhouse gallery in London, presents the first UK solo exhibition of Pągowska’s work. The exhibition seeks to introduce Pągowska’s overlooked work to a global audience as curator Oona Doyle explains: 'While Teresa Pągowska is present in Poland and her works are in major institutions, she is not as known internationally in contrast to artists such as Andrzej Wróblewski or Alina Szapocznikow. She deserves proper exposure, and this exhibition will be the rare opportunity to see her works in London.'

Pągowska's approach to the female figure was both sensitive and radical. One striking painting, Untitled (1966) commands attention, with shades of blue, from deep cobalt to soft baby blue, bleeding from background to foreground, delineating a fragmented female figure that sits in the centre of the canvas. Her head appears severed, a haunting symbol of violence and erasure, perhaps a feminist outcry of the battered and fractured experiences of women in postwar Poland. 'The art world was dominated by male artists, and because she worked and lived in Poland, a communist country at the time, that too played a role in limiting her exposure in the West.' Her son Filip Pągowska, who oversees her estate, explains. 'With times changing and the much larger interest in female artists growing, the past injustices are being mitigated.' Filip is also a graphic artist and the man behind the Comme des Garçons logo.