Jan LEBENSTEIN, POSITION AT THE WINDOW, 1955

Ink, pencil, watercolor, millimeter paper; 29 x 36.5 cm (illus. p-p)
Signed p.d.; Lebenstein 55; at bottom in pencil: 36 x 18
Asking price 4500
Estimate 6000 - 6500
◙ droit de suite

Jan LEBENSTEIN
1930 Brest - 1999 Cracow
One of the most famous Polish artists. Studied at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts (1948-54) under Artur Nacht-Samborski. He made his debut in the period before the thaw during the National Exhibition of Young Visual Arts Against War, Against Fascism at the Warsaw Arsenal (1955). In 1959, he received the Grand Prix at the First International Biennale of the Young in Paris and settled permanently in France. He drew his themes from ancient literature, mythology and the Bible. He studied cultural archetypes and transformed them into images for painting. He also created a series devoted to images of prehistoric animals. Connected with the milieu of the Parisian Kultura, he illustrated the short stories of G. Herling-Grudziński's short stories published there. He illustrated G. Orwell's Animal Farm, published by the Literary Institute, and designed a stained glass window with scenes from the Apocalypse in the Pallottine Chapel in Paris. In 1976, he received the A. Jurzykowski Foundation Award from New York. In 1987, he received the independent J. Cybis Award.