Colour as a ready-made: notes on the margins of the works of Adam Marczyński

The article deals with the issue of colour and its perception in selected works by Adam Marczyński (1908-1985), which are part of the Variable Reflections series from the 1960s and 1970s. The starting point for our considerations is colour treated as a ready-made, a colour swatch annexed to the painting arts by artists aware of the fact that colour can be a commercial product. The subject of the analysis are Marczyński’s works filled with square or rectangular coffers covered with movable flaps hinged on an axis. The artist covered the interior of the coffers with intense colour, usually achieved through the use of fluorescent paints. Their vivid colour was to be transmitted through reflections of light bouncing off of the silvery surface of flaps, and changing depending on the angle of inclination.