The Eastern Square (Tunis)
The Eastern Square (Tunis)
The Eastern Square (Tunis)

The Eastern Square (Tunis)

Author: Stabrowski Kazimierz, 1869 - 1929

Created: around 1892–1904.

Material / technique: paper, pastel.

Dimensions: 51x68 cm.

Signature: K. Stabrowski (in the bottom-left corner of the painting).

Most symbolists looked to the East for inspiration and K. Stabrowski was no exception. In 1893, the painter was looking for material for his thesis entitled Muhammad in the Desert and was thus travelling through the historical regions of the Middle East, which, some may say, include the Greater Maghreb countries such as Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Many of K. Stabrowski’s paintings depicting marketplaces are chock-full of the spirit of the Middle East. A pastel of vivid and rather positive colours were used to create abstract and faceless figures of merchants and customers among middle-eastern architecture. Some of the figures are vague, as if they are somewhat transparent. This accentuates the transience and temporal elements of the material and bodily state of being. The faded curves outlining the colourful visible reality encourage the viewer to glance at the eternal spiritual state of being that is present behind it.

Reference: ‘Kazimierz Stabrowski, the Teacher of M. K. Čiurlionis’. Kaunas: M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum, 2016, Kat. Nr. 2, P. 40.  

Exhibitions: ‘Kazimierz Stabrowski, the Teacher of M. K. Čiurlionis’, 2015 September 24 - 2016 January 3, M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum,Kaunas;  Exhibition of the Fine Arts Collection of Edmundas Armoška "Outcrops of Lithuanian Art 16th–21th Centuries" 2008 July 3 - August 31, Lithuanian Art Museum, Vilnius.

Published: Kazimierz Stabrowski, the Teacher of M. K. Čiurlionis’. Kaunas: M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum, 2016, Kat. Nr. 2, P. 40.  The World of Landscapes, II T., Vilnius: LAWIN, 2013, Cat. No. 1, P. 26; Exhibition of the Fine Arts Collection of Edmundas Armoška "Outcrops of Lithuanian Art 16th–21th Centuries", Lithuanian Art Museum, Vilnius. 2008. Cat. No. II, 70, P. 106; "RES PUBLICA" The art collection of the law firm Ellex Valiunas. Compiler R. Jononienė. Vilnius, 2018, Cat. No. 97, P. 231.;  Magazine "White Room", 2020, link http://baltaskambarys.com/portfolio/m-k-ciurlionio-mokytojas-kitapus-tikroves/; “LOGOS”, 2021/106, “A Journal of Religion, Philosophy, Comparative Cultural Studies and Art”, 2021, the second page of journal cover; Serge Fauchereau  „Baltic art XIX-XX century“, Flammarion, 2021, translated by Birutė Gelgaudaitė , Hubris, 2021 P. 17; Antanas Andrijauskas „Reflections of Ideas of Theosophical Philosophy of Art in Painting by Stabrauskas and Čiurlionis“, Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, 2021, Vilnius, P. 89, 117.

Photograph: Kazimierz Stabrowski (1869–1929); photo of the second page of  journal cover “LOGOS”, 2021/106, "A Journal of Religion, Philosophy, Comparative Cultural Studies and Art".