Praca Kobiety

A holiday week, beginning with May Day, and yesterday being Trzeci Maj, stores and offices have limited hours or been closed altogether, even the 24-hour grocery across the street. But the International Cultural Center advertised that it would be open daily throughout the week, offering this exhibit: Praca Kobiety nigdy się nie kończy (“A woman’s work is never done”). The Polish insistence on the double negative is especially appropriate here. A collection of European prints on the theme, drawn from the late 15^th to the mid-19th century, including works by such major female artists as Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt van Rijn, it documents some of the hard realities and nasty aspersions, as well as a number of more encouraging images of the work life of women. I especially liked the feminine representations of the Seven Liberal Arts and the print of Phyllis riding herd on Aristotle. The exhibit, wystawa, closes in August. If you can’t make it, open your eyes and look around.

Woman at work on a Saturday