Title: Cecilia (Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin)

Date: 2025

Description: The portrait depicts the English astronomer and star researcher Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. In her pioneering doctoral thesis, defended in 1925 at Harvard College Observatory, she put forward the groundbreaking hypothesis that stars are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium. Initially widely criticised, it eventually proved to be a fundamental scientific truth. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was the first female professor of astronomy at Harvard University. In the portrait, I depicted the researcher looking through a microscope or maybe a telescope? This unknown of scale refers to the synergy between the macro and micro scale, mentioned in the biblical proverb “as above, so below.” It points to the connection between the processes occurring in the galaxy scale and those in the cells of our bodies. A significant element of the portrait is the astronomer’s hand, painted with red ochre. One of the knobs of the observation device smoothly transitions into the sun. Above Cecilia’s head, a dark star is painted, which alludes to the “all-knowing void” – dark, still unexplored matter, a mysterious force existing in the cosmos. The painting was presented at the exhibition Heart. Sun, dedicated to our star and its symbolic meaning in relation to the heart, which is an energetic center and a source of transforming power, enabling the overcoming of suffering and trauma. This exhibition is the result of collaboration with Marta Szulc and Małgorzata Szandała.

Technique, dimension: oil on canvas, 55 × 60 cm

First showing: 2025, Miejsce Projektów Zachęty

Ownership: Monika Waraxa