Maja BEREZOWSKA (1893 - 1978), Flowers

Watercolor; 48 x 42 cm
Signed p. d.: maja berezowska
Provenance: private collection Warsaw

She studied painting at Mikolaj Roerich's private school in St. Petersburg, and later in Cracow with Jozef Pankiewicz and Leon Wyczółkowski. She also studied in Paris where she collaborated as a cartoonist and caricaturist with the magazines "Le Figaro", "Le Rire", "Ici Paris". In the latter newspaper in 1935, Berezowska published a series of caricatures entitled Sweet Adolf's Pleasures, concerning Hitler. Soon after the publication of this issue of the newspaper, the German embassy in Paris filed an official action against Berezowska, arguing that the drawings were a punishable insult to the head of state. In 1941 she was imprisoned in the Pawiak prison and then in the Ravensbrück camp. After returning from the concentration camp and convalescing in Sweden in 1946, she settled in Warsaw.
She had already gained fame before the war as the author of subtle graphics on erotic themes. The sublimity of human feelings and the love nude were constant motifs in her work throughout her life. The artist's first solo exhibition took place in Kiev in 1916. By 1939 her caricatures, drawings and illustrations were published by widely read satirical weeklies: "Cyrulik Warszawski", "Szpilki", or "Szczutek", published in Lviv. She continued her cooperation with "Szpilki" even after the war. Her works were also presented to their readers by "Teatr", "Nowa Kultura" and "Przekrój", among others. After the artist's death, monographic publications of her watercolors and drawings began to appear.
"Without love there would be no life. For me, there is nothing more wonderful than the human body, and as long as I live, I will draw them. As beautifully as possible!"
Maja Berezowska