50,000 zł
Serhiy Savchenko
Description
To See to Be Seen
oil and acrylic on canvas, 100 × 150 cm, 2007
artist: Serhiy Savchenko
“To See to Be Seen” is a monumental painting by Serhiy Savchenko, created in 2007 using oil and acrylic on canvas. Measuring 100 × 150 cm, the work depicts a nude female figure captured in an unusual, tense posture — the woman turns abruptly, as if she has suddenly been noticed, startled and frightened by the very fact of being seen.
The title — To See to Be Seen — reveals one of the artist’s key philosophical ideas. The painting is not merely a representation of the body, but a reflection on the act of seeing itself and on the relationship between the gaze and human presence in art. The figure is not simply observed; rather, she becomes aware of the gaze that touches her.
In this sense, the work resonates with the thought of Georges Didi-Huberman, particularly with his concept of “that which looks back at us within what we see.” Savchenko explores the moment of rupture between seeing and being seen — a space of tension in which the image ceases to be an object and begins to function as a subject. Fear, vulnerability, and the suddenness of the gesture reveal the fragility of human presence in the face of the Other’s gaze and of the very act of representation itself.
