Roses III 

Curator: Let’s consider this oil painting, titled "Roses III" by Małgorzata Serwatka. The impasto technique really gives it texture. What strikes you first? Editor: Well, the overall density. It’s not a light and airy floral arrangement, is it? Those roses, while beautiful, almost seem to emerge from a shadowy, brooding space. Curator: Indeed, and I find it interesting how roses, historically symbols of love, beauty, and sometimes even secrecy, are presented here in such a complex way. Not conventionally romantic at all, but leaning almost towards a realism tinged with Romanticism, in style. Editor: The colors support that tension, don’t they? The yellow is a comfort, suggesting warmth, happiness, and memory, but it's tempered by the heavy greens and burgundies swirling around the blooms, offering a sense of time, perhaps age. Curator: It could also reflect the broader context of still life paintings throughout art history, originally designed as emblems of status or even religious allegories regarding the transience of life, the role of the wealthy and their power as patrons and as cultural arbiters. Here, the symbolism seems more intimate. Editor: I agree. And even if we pull back from formal symbolism, the rose is so culturally loaded—its presence signifies so much, doesn't it? I’m interested in what this modern artist intends by embracing that history. Curator: That relationship between art and its public reception is key to a painting like this. If one had to imagine how such a painting enters into the social realm today, how is this object utilized for conversations about art in Poland? What can it bring to a viewer in that context, do you think? Editor: Perhaps a conversation on fleeting beauty and memory and mortality in light of the everyday… It makes one consider life’s simple moments. There is something melancholic but hopeful about this presentation. Curator: Yes, and I think by avoiding easy sentimentality and truly reflecting those cultural complexities, the artist offers a unique reading of our history. Editor: Ultimately it captures an emotional truth—a fleeting moment, beautifully preserved, a meditation.