Collection

Untitled (Hammer) belongs to a series important in the history of Knaflewski and Koło Klipsa of the late 1980’s. It makes references to the psychedelic and spiritual interests of the group, and combine surreal and mystical motifs, as well as a rigid and dirty aesthetics of punk-rock zines and posters.

In addition, in Untitled (Hammer), the artist drew inspiration from the 1954 poster by Tadeusz Trepkowski The Fortune of the Homeland – From the Work of our Hands, which was created in the style of socialist realism and presents a worker’s hammer with a green twig with an apple sprouting from its shaft. Knaflewski’s treatment of this inspiration is, however, ironic – the realistic symbol is changed into an unreal and dreamlike object. As the artists from Koło Klipsa wrote in 1989, “our realism is based on contrast. The contrast is to assault all that is separate and hateful. When complete, the work combines the seemingly unrecognisable with the unfathomable."