Stara artystka maluje
An Old Female Artist Paints

Summary/Abstract: Only recently has old age become the object of reflections pursued in assorted domains of science. Indubitably, the reason for this phenomenon lies in constantly expanding longevity. We still do not have at our disposal criteria for determining the precise onset of old age, and prevailing opinions remain at odds. As a rule, it is accepted that old age is tantamount to maturity when spiritual issues predominate over material ones, particularly corporeal. Marcel Proust was an exponent of a contrary view claiming that the commencement of old age is marked by a changed attitude towards the surrounding world, when bodily relations, to use the expression coined by the writer, become more important than spiritual ones. This is the moment when contact with the object, the landscape and another person assumes a new significance, and becomes a nourishment of sorts, indispensable for life and creativity. Późna twórczość wielkich artystów (The Late Works of Great Artists), a book by Mieczysław Wallis published more than thirty years ago and devoted predominantly to aged artists – albeit not exclusively, since the very term ”late works” does not have to denote creativity dating from an artist’s old age, makes no mention of female artists as if the very problem did not pertain to them. From a statistical viewpoint, for centuries women tended to die earlier than men, but this was not the essential reason for the omission. The explanation should be sought in the category of womanhood obligatory in our culture. Only a woman capable of fulfilling maternal functions was regarded as noteworthy. An old woman who had already completed all her duties towards the family and society, became a matron and was accepted only in this guise. Apparently, the combined status of a matron and an artist was excluded. Those two social constructions could not be mixed, and female artists were refused the right to have a family; for all practical purposes old female artists did not exist. Nevertheless, there always remained the sort of a woman who violated the imposed rules of conduct, and frequently she was an artist. Already in her youth Olga Boznańska rejected the demands of the patriarchal world and did not accept the functions deemed fitting for a woman by totally devoting herself to art. By refuting all subjugation to conventions, in time she drew attention to something which usually remains invisible, i. e. otherness attained by age itself. As an older woman she fascinated the visitors who appeared in her rather unkempt studio. Physical relations, understood as contact with objects and people, remained extremely important due to the very fact that she was a painter, and with age they grew even more intense. She needed them in the same manner as the one described by Proust, succumbing to the tide of life delineated by old age.

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