This painting by Wojciech Fangor is one of the most canonical works of Polish socialist realism. It is based on straightforward dichotomies: now and then, this side and the other. She-Giants (Olbrzymki) is the title of Ewa Toniak’s book about the image of women in socialist realism. In the book, the author recalls, among others, a documentary propaganda film from 195 titled Women of Our Times (Kobiety naszych dni). “Yesterday, the working class gave scraps of human rights to women, today, in the People’s Republic of Poland, a woman is genuinely taken care of by the government”, the film's narrator said. The women of our times are the laborers: textile workers, bricklayers, foremen, and tractor drivers." Wojciech Fangor’s painting (created one year before the film) bearing the laconic title Figures (Postaci), is one of the most canonical works from that period. It is based on straightforward dichotomies: now and then, on this side and on that one. He tells his audience: you can judge for yourselves which is better. In the canvas, there are two women. The one of the left hand side is the antagonist: slim, in a fitted, fashionable dress, patterned with English writing (Miami, New York, Wall Street, London, Coca-cola). Her manicured hands, which surely haven’t been calloused by hard labor, hold an elegant green bag. Her face is hidden behind a pair of large yellow-framed sunglasses and make-up. It probably hasn’t been long since she visited a hairdresser. Her outfit is complemented by a bead necklace. She looks important. Her positive counterpart is a whole different story. Her stance is proud, relaxed, resting one of her hands on her hip, and the other – on a shovel’s handle. She is strong, self-assured, and natural. Under the rolled up sleeves of her jumpsuit we see well-built forearms. The man standing beside her also wearing a worker’s outfit, holds a shovel or a pickaxe handle in his right hand, and embraces his partner with his left. Both of them are healthy, tanned, and fit. They are not defined by clothes or accessories from the West, but by their tools. Some viewers still joke that the man peeks yearningly at the “American lady’s” cleavage. In the background, we see a symbolic representation of the effects of these two positions. On the left hand side, there are ruins (let’s remember that the painting was created five years after the war), while on the right, behind the workers, we see a freshly constructed, multi-storey building with rows of windows divided by simple architectonic elements, in a typical socialist realist style. Even the weather in the painting is meaningful. The clear blue sky on the right side of the composition seems to be threatened by the clouds approaching from above the ruins. Obviously, Fangor’s Figures is very much in line with the dominant ideology of the time. The rhetoric approach of the piece is also characteristic of that period. Both before and after the war, before and after electrification, during the Sanation and the Communist times – the Communist Biblia pauperum keenly introduced plain and accessible comparisons. Especially popular were photo albums showing views of Warsaw “before and after.” Photographs of ruins were paired with images of the same place after reconstruction, carried out as a common effort, thanks to the new, efficient authorities. This binary scheme of representation can also be found in Fangor’s painting – he juxtaposes the rubble with a freshly build edifice, spare time – with work, the female – with the male, West – with the East, the Western imperialism, that was mocked by the propaganda – with Communism. Figures were not only compatible with the official propaganda, but also with the expectations towards art.... The socialist realist style is predominantly based on a realist form, a connection between art and social life, and the subject matter. The selection of artworks that matched the official doctrine was facilitated by the National Art Exhibitions – art showcases organized annually from 1950 onwards, the exhibits of which were selected by a special commission. Fangor’s painting was shown at one such exhibition and was immediately acclaimed. In Poland, the realist form was usually associated with Kapism, a Polish variety of Colourism. Just like Andrzej Wróblewski in Kraków, Wojciech Fangor developed his own formula for engaged painting, rejecting his professors’ style. Eventually, however, being unable to find true satisfaction in this genre, he turned to applied arts and poster design. Figures has become an attractive object of studies for critics, who keep on creating new interpretations of it. According to Ewa Franus, the canvas presents “two incarnations of femininity at various stages of physical and spiritual transformation.” The man acts as a guide in this metamorphosis. Ewa Toniak notes that “the ideologically correct and desired image of a woman was epitomized in an androgynous, muscular, anti-erotic working woman.” The object of desire was ultimately transformed into a rhetorical figure belonging to the new ideology” – Franus adds. On the other hand, the British historian David Crowley associates Fangor’s Figures with “an archetypical expression of the Stalinist favoring of production over consumption,” thus adding another pair in the chain of opposites incorporated in the piece.... In Fangor’s painting, it is the lady dressed up in the Western style that ought to be connected with the Stilyagi trend, leaning towards morally dubious consumption. A typical socialist realist painting, as Wojciech Włodarczyk, a researcher of that period emphasized, was characterized by a clear propaganda message contained in the title, often illustrating seemingly neutral scenes. It was the title that inscribed an artwork in the ideological order – e.g. in the case of Look at this Beautiful Demonstration! (Patrz, jaka piękna manifestacja!) by Wojciech Weiss from 1950, or Włodzimierz Zakrzewski’s Bread to the Nation (Chleb ojczyźnie) from 1951. Fangor’s painting seems to function in the opposite way. Ewa Toniak notices that “especially striking is the friction between the neutral title that is free of any messages, and the canvas’s content.” Maybe that is why from today’s perspective, Figures, with its naïve persuasion, appears as absurd as Ważyk’s poem. Some visitors to the Art Museum in Łódź, whose collection it forms part of, find it hard to believe that it was painted “with seriousness.” Was the artist joking? Unfortunately not. He was following the spirit of his time. [http://culture.pl/en/work/figures-wojciech-fangor ]