Erna Rosenstein is one of the most prominent figures of the Polish avant-garde, associated with the Kraków Group in the 1930’s. Her artistic practice encompasses various media, such as painting, assemblage, drawing, objects, and artist books. She also published several volumes of poetry. Erna Rosenstein’s works have been part of many exhibitions and collections in Poland and abroad, such as documenta, Kassel, Germany; Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Tate Modern, London, UK; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA; Petit Palais, Paris, France; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland; Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark;  Muzeum Susch, Zernez, Switzerland; The Jewish Museum, New York, USA; Zachęta National Art Gallery, Warsaw, Poland; National Museums in Warsaw, Wrocław and Kraków, Poland; Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, Poland, and many others.  

Erna Rosenstein’s artistic practice reflects the artist’s sovereign expression to rewrite post-war trauma and experiences related to it. She transformed her private living space into an intimate workshop, an evolving installation that focused attention on her uncompromising merger of art and life. Rosenstein remained devoted to these kinds of poetics for decades, which is why her work comprises extraordinary combinations in which she brought disparate elements together, whether they be the sensual and the spiritual, the material and the immaterial, or the real and the imaginary. The work Zaświaty is a significant example of her practice from the 1960’s, which was dominated by organic forms. Erna Rosenstein was fascinated during this period by the energy of nature and its unrestrained transformation into new forms. The drawings from this period mirror the idea of the horror vacui effect and are created from a variety of materials and techniques.