Marcin Maciejowski
Marcin Maciejowski has painted images of armed forces and paramilitary units, including politically organized youth groups active in the countryside. In Dismissal (2004), the faces of the individual figures are blurred and the composition stylized in monochromatic black and white, typical of other paintings based on photographs which Maciejowski made at that time. Here, Maciejowski references a historical scene that shows thwarted Polish revolutionaries surrendering Warsaw to the German occupiers in 1945, while the Russian liberators calmly await the collapse of the revolt.[1] In distorting the details while making visible the military uniforms and raised salute, the activity depicted could be applied to various groups across Europe.