Woman Slaughtering Hens 1895 - 1899

Editor: Here we have "Woman Slaughtering Hens" painted by Jacek Malczewski sometime between 1895 and 1899. The medium is oil paint and there's something incredibly visceral about the subject matter and the way it’s rendered, quite confrontational actually. What strikes you most about this piece? Curator: Well, putting aside the shock value for a moment, it's important to consider how Malczewski is portraying rural labor. Slaughtering livestock was and is a mundane, everyday activity for many. I wonder, how does Malczewski elevate or perhaps even aestheticize this task within the social context of his time? This wasn't destined for a farmhouse wall; this was going into a gallery, inviting urban audiences to contemplate a very different world. Editor: That’s interesting. So you are suggesting he is making a commentary of the public role of this type of genre painting? Is he perhaps trying to create a dialogue about class differences or rural versus urban existence? Curator: Precisely. Consider the composition - a somewhat idealized woman, a classical composition against this rather grim, earthy reality. Also, Malczewski was known for his symbolic paintings. Might we be reading deeper symbolic meanings into the hens themselves, beyond just the daily grind? Editor: So, the public's consumption of this image turns the everyday slaughter into something almost… mythical? It really makes me think about the distance we have from our food sources today. Curator: Yes! Malczewski plays on that distance and that desire to consume what the countryside has to offer while, simultaneously, wanting to avoid confrontation with that reality. He turns a mirror to his audience and to the art institution, prompting reflection on societal values and how those values are portrayed, interpreted and perhaps even exploited. Editor: That adds a completely new layer of interpretation! It's definitely more than just a scene of rural life, isn't it? I’ll definitely be rethinking the painting in relation to its exhibition context now.