The work is an example of the new figuration in Polish painting. In the 1960s,
after graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Przybylski was
reluctant to adopt the academic way of painting and was looking for his own
artistic language. At the time, he was interested in expressive abstraction
and matter painting, but ultimately his search focused on figurative
painting. The artist depicted people in dramatic situation, full of emotions
and psychological tension. Characters with simplified, deformed silhouettes
play specific roles here — either chosen by the characters themselves
or forced on them by external factors. Przybylski’s painting draws on the
achievements of hyperrealism and is most often metaphorical, while his
entire oeuvre confirms the artist’s socio-political engagement. Przybylski’s
self-portrait shows a figure bound with cord as a symbol of enslavement,
humiliation and violation of human integrity.