Jan Tarasin, OBJECTS, 1976–1991

38.50 x 26.60 cm - silkscreen print on paper
signed lower right: JTarasin 76/91, signed lower left: 47

Jan Tarasin (Kalisz, September 11, 1926 – Warsaw, August 8, 2009) studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków under Prof. Zbigniew Pronaszka (1946–1951). While still a student, he made his debut at the First Exhibition of Modern Art in Kraków in 1948–49. In the mid-1950s, he created a series of lithographs: “Nowa Huta and Its Residents,” 1954, “Home,” 1955. In the former, he challenged the official optimism; in the latter, using the symbolism of still life, he incorporated existential themes and references to the recent tragedy of war. After 1956, he began painting non-figurative works. The artist arranged isolated elements (referred to as “objects”) on a plane (the series “Interior,” 1957) or in an allusive space (the series “Feast,” 1957, “The Shore,” 1962–1964, “Counted Objects,” from 1968, and “The Antique Shop,” 1968). This principle persisted in his painting in subsequent years; the differences between creative periods concern the manner in which the “objects” are rendered and their placement within the pictorial space or in relation to the background. Since the 1970s, the “objects” have evolved into graphic, usually black symbols on light backgrounds (the “Collection” series, from 1971). The backgrounds, in turn, are sometimes illusively three-dimensional, varied in tone, and soft. In the 1990s, the artist returned to a more colorful, painterly approach to both the symbols and the backgrounds, which are often dark or blend into the “objects” (the “Incubator of Objects” series, 1992). Tarasin has been a member of the “Krakow Group” since 1962. From 1963 to 1967, he taught at the Faculty of Interior Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. In 1967, he moved to Warsaw, and in 1974, he began teaching at the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. From 1987 to 1990, he served as rector of that institution. In 1976, he received the Cyprian Kamil Norwid Art Critics’ Award, and in 1984, the Jan Cybis Award; Award at the San Marino Art Biennale, 1965. Alongside painting, he worked in drawing and printmaking—lithography until the 1960s and silkscreen printing from 1974 onward. From 1974 to 1981, he published eight self-produced “Notebooks” featuring silkscreen prints and his own texts. In 1995, the Zachęta Gallery hosted an exhibition of the artist’s work, accompanied by a monographic catalog.