Jozef Halas, Steam, 2001

gouache, watercolor, paper, 63 x 48 cm signed and dated p.d.: JHałas 2001

provenance: private collection, Warsaw; Giza Gallery, Cracow

Józef Hałas (1927, Nowy Sącz - 2015, Wrocław) In 1949 he began his studies at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Wrocław. In 1954 he received a diploma in painting from Prof. Eugeniusz Geppert at the PWSSP in Wroclaw, where he worked as a teacher from 1954 to 1957. In 1956 he took part in the creation of the "X" Group. Since 1961 he was a member of the Wroclaw Group, bringing together artists of different generations. In the 1950s, his work was inspired by Tadeusz Makowski and Paul Klee. Since 1957, he worked at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw. Since 1985 he headed the Department of Painting at the Faculty of Painting and Sculpture (with a break in 1990-1996). He was a member of the Council for Higher Artistic Education from 1988 to 1996, and received the title of associate professor in 1988.
In the 1960s, the dominant themes in the artist's work were the road, the interior, figures and, above all, the mountains to which he returned. His works are held by national museums and private collections abroad as well. He was interested in nature. In his compositions, Jozef Halas often chose a piece of landscape and tried to make it a kind of ideal representation of the whole. He synthesized shapes while maintaining a geometric order, and often used colors composed of "earth colors."