Marius Zabinski (born 1956, Poland) - Lot 1

Marius Zabinski (born 1956, Poland) Behind the Curtain Oil on canvas 33 x 41 cm Signed lower right Marius Zabinski Studio (Poland, 1956) Painting as a Space for the Gaze For Marius Zabinski, painting does not merely represent the world—it recomposes it within the space of the gaze. As an heir to modernism and deeply influenced by the lessons of Cubism, the artist fragments forms, shifts them, and superimposes them to reveal a more inner reality. The face, the body, the animal, or the landscape are never treated as isolated motifs, but as elements of a composition where color, material, light, and memory converge. His compositions thus seem to unfold in successive layers. Fragments of figures emerge among flat areas of color, vertical lines, geometric shapes, or textured surfaces. The gaze is sometimes frontal, sometimes concealed, and at times reduced to a single eye or a profile that seems to emerge from an abstract architecture. Far from dissolving the figure, this fragmentation instead lends it an almost mysterious presence: it suggests what lies hidden behind appearances and invites the viewer to mentally reconstruct what they perceive only in part. Color plays an essential role in this exploration. Deep blues, indigos, ochres, earth tones, blacks, and metallic hues are arranged in relationships of tension and balance. The pictorial surface itself becomes a territory: a space where material, signs, and forms seem to retain traces of a world that has been lived, dreamed, or is in perpetual transformation. In some works, human silhouettes stand side by side like silent presences; elsewhere, a landscape or an architectural element opens up the composition toward a vaster space. Throughout his work, Zabinski maintains a fruitful tension between figuration and abstraction, geometric order and freedom of gesture, reality and the imagination. The works brought together here belong to a body of approximately two hundred paintings, created during a phase of the artist’s career that has now come to a close. Through its artistic coherence, the richness of its exploration, and the ambition that runs through it, this body of work constitutes one of the most significant chapters in Marius Zabinski’s creative output. It was also during these years that the artist received, in October 2015, the “Lorenzo il Magnifico” Prize in the Painting category, awarded during the 10th Florence International Biennale of Contemporary Art. This body of work thus attests to a visual vocabulary that has reached full maturity. The works appear as variations on a few fundamental questions: identity, encounter, the relationship with others, memory, choice, the passage of time, and the possibility of a future. The human figure, often reduced to a few essential lines, becomes the primary focus of these explorations. An eye, a profile, or two faces facing each other can be enough to give rise to an entire story. And this story continues even in the titles. They are not mere labels: they, too, tell a story, like the chapters of a fragmented narrative that each painting helps to complete. Behind the Curtain, The Duel, Waiting for Future, Indigo Evolution, Presence of Women, Elegant, Carmina, New Reality, Flying Circus, The Lovers, Doubts Persist, Paparazzi, Lola’s Profile, The Choice, The Veils of Freedom, The Gray Truth, Focus, Eternal Questions, Indigo Meeting… So many words, situations, and enigmas that extend the painting beyond the surface and invite the viewer to imagine both what precedes the scene and what might follow it. Thus, behind the skillful composition of the scenes and the richness of the materials, Marius Zabinski’s painting remains deeply narrative and human. It never fully reveals its subject. It deliberately retains a measure of mystery—one that compels the viewer to return, to search, to piece together the fragments, and, ultimately, to write their own story. Overview of the Artistic Career of Marius Zabinski (1980–2026) After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Marius Zabinski moved to France in 1980. According to biographical information provided by the Galerie Montmartre, his arrival was prompted by a meeting with a Parisian art dealer who invited him to come work and exhibit in France. He initially worked as a painting restorer, an experience that allowed him to deepen his knowledge of both traditional and contemporary techniques. Virginie Journiac, Art Historian Certified Expert with CECOA, FNEPSA, and CEDEA