Old church paintings darken with candle smoke until only a stain is left and the eye fills in the saint by itself. This canvas looks like that: rusty drips, black, flecks of gold leaf in the middle, and at the bottom a pale shape like a foot slipped out from under a shroud. Barbara Wesołowska grew up among Gothic churches and images of the Madonna, and shellac and gold are the materials of those altars. The title means something left out. What was left out is the face.
The painter
Barbara Wesołowska (born 1984) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, then at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Royal College of Art in London, where she lives. Her painting draws on a childhood spent among Polish Gothic churches, images of the Madonna and the saints. She is represented by Galeria Stereo in Warsaw and Michael Werner Gallery in London, New York and Athens.