THE KRASNALS, Cleopatra. Theda Bara from the series: Jews, 2016

Oil, canvas; 50 x 50 cm
Signed and dated and described on the back: JEWS/ Cleopatra/ Theda Bara/ 2016/ The Krasnals
Work presented at the exhibition "Jews, Jews" Fibak Gallery, Warsaw, 2016
Provenance: private collection Cracow

Jews/Jews by The Krasnals group is a series of dozens of portraits of well-known historical and fictional characters of Jewish origin. The scenes are taken from films of European and American cinema - they are portraits of actors playing the roles of Jews. The series is a kind of response to the work of Piotr Uklański Nazis, who in 2000 showed 164 photographs of actors playing Nazis. The characters in The Dwarf's paintings are from such films as The Pianist, Ida, The Wolf of Wall Street, Inglourious Basterds and The Social Network, among others. The series features the entire spectrum of characters, attitudes and roles that people of Jewish descent have played and continue to play in history and society. From victims of crime, to prominent artists to successful people. The goal of The Krasnals is to create confusion and mild consternation for the viewer, who must answer the question of who is actually who. We easily merge the actor with the character he plays. Even if we know the face of the original, and so the illusion built by the actor's creations, the cinema screen wins in our heads with the truth. After all, the constant game of appearances, the manoeuvring between fiction and reality, is what constitutes the power of pop culture and attracts both its conscious and unconscious audience.