The “Eyes” piece by Liliana Zeic depicts the relationship between Cecylia Chalus and Antonina Dunin-Sulgostowska, who ran the Chalus-Dunin Decorative and Artistic School in Warsaw at the beginning of the 20th century. The artist was inspired by the fact that, apart from professional cooperation, Chalus and Dunin may also have had an intimate relationship. What we know about the school’s founders is that they lived together, and at the end of their lives they moved to Radosc near Warsaw, choosing to grow old together. And although in the 19th and first decades of the 20th century, the sharing of apartments by women practicing the profession of teacher or governess was not uncommon, as it resulted from their economic situation, Chalus, who came from France and went to her home country every year, did not struggle for a lack of money. Two pairs of eyes intertwined with meadow plants in the exhibition space are the look that Chalus and Dunin look at each other across the school painting studio full of students. Perhaps it is an intimate, “sexually charged” look, perhaps tender and friendly, containing the concern the women held for each other.
phot. Bartek Zalewski
