Wilhem Sasnal’s painting is taken from a photograph of the Polish swimmer Bartłomiej Kubkowski. Kubkowski, a long-distance swimmer from Poland, has made multiple attempts to swim across the Baltic Sea. His goal was to complete the challenging route from Sweden to Poland without the aid of a wetsuit, relying only on his physical endurance and mental strength. Despite facing extremely difficult weather conditions and cold-water temperatures, he has become known for his determination and resilience. His efforts have drawn significant media attention and sparked public interest in extreme endurance sports.
Sasnal has emerged over the last two decades as one of Europe’s preeminent contemporary painters. He regularly uses photographic imagery – drawn from films, reproductions of art, pop culture or his own phone – as the starting points for his paintings, which then undergo various levels of distortion, simplification or abstraction. His work often addresses weighty historical themes such as the Holocaust, or familiar pop-cultural icons, as well as the people, places and objects around him, constituting an artistic document of post-Communist Poland at a time of socio-political transformation.
WILHELM SASNAL (POLAND, 1972)
oil on canvas
Acquired in 2025
