Street vendor

Brief description

An important place in the Krakow cycle (1931–1935) is occupied by works that demonstrate the peculiarities of human life in the urban environment. Despite their plot-thematic unity, etchings differ in the ways of artistic and plastic interpretation of images. Under the influence of late cubism, in the works of L. Levitsky in the 1930s, compositions appeared in which the image of a person was organically transmitted through geometric elements. The artist is experimenting with forms, transforming a face or figure into a set of simple figures, laconic lines. The "street vendor", known in the literature as "Detalista", combines the effects of late Cubism and abstract art. It is important to note that the artist makes it clear to the audience that there is the figure of a man in a hat in front of them only through the accent elements: shoes, fingers, sketchy face, hat. If they are taken away, the work will lose all anthropomorphic features and become an abstract geometric work.

Zhmurko Oksana, Head of Leopold Levitsky Memorial Museum of Art.

From the collection of Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv.