Coldness (Chlod)

Marta Kremer

Marta Kremer suffered a weakened heart as a child, owing to a variety of illnesses that began as a baby when her family lived under Nazi rule in Poland. With scarcity of provisions and her family no longer able to seek professional medical help, young Kremer was left to ride out episodes of illness alone from her bed, where she frequently experienced hallucinations. This period of time, which lasted after the end of WWII and into the new Soviet era, when her parents had to acquire special exemption for their daughter as marches and attendance of Soviet parades became mandatory, remained a source of artistic inspiration for Kremer.

“Coldness” captures the sense of isolation and loneliness of a child in a time of great societal struggle, but with Kremer’s choice of mezzotint to soften the atmosphere of the scene, it is not without beauty. A naked figure lies on a pile of rolled fabrics, an empty fireplace or oven and a stone chimney with faces emerging rises behind her. In a sense, the artist seems to hold her childhood self in a nest of safety that defies the truth of the outside world.