Title: Curiosity in the Crown of Stars

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. Cecilia’s figure is illuminated by the sun. Its light reveals a golden star shining in her abdomen. This is a symbol of the creative force emanating from the Dantian, the energetic center. Her head is crowned by the stars, which indicates her spiritual and extrasensory connection with the universe. Cecilia is a child of the stars. Her hands are painted blurred and glowing, which signifies a strong creative aspect, but also her agency and strength in overcoming the barriers she faced as a female scientist working at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

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, 140 × 115 cm

First showing: 2025, Zachęta Project Room

Ownership: Monika Waraxa