Kiejstut Bereźnicki (b. 1935, Poznań), "Old Women I," 1977

Provenance
private collection, Poland

Bibliography
Maria Błażko, Obraźnik. A Monograph on the Work of Kiejstut Bereźnicki, Łódź 2022, p. 17 (ill.)

Biography
He studied at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, where he received his diploma in 1958 from the studio of Prof. Stanisław Teisseyre. He has worked at the academy since 1960, leading his own painting studio since 1982. From 1981 to 1984, he served as vice-rector. He has been a professor since 1984. He has participated in exhibitions since 1959, achieving numerous successes, such as: First Prize at the National Exhibition of Young Painting, Sopot 1965; a gold medal at the 6th Festival of Fine Arts, Warsaw 1968; and an award at the 3rd International Triennial of Realist Painting, Sofia 1979. He also participated, among others, in the 3rd Biennale of Young Artists, Paris 1963, and the 8th Biennale in São Paulo 1965, and held numerous solo exhibitions both in Poland and abroad. He draws on realism and, moreover, on the art of the past with local, Gdańsk roots and character. He creates still lifes, banquets, mythological scenes, and allegories rendered in an archaic style, but above all, hieratic bourgeois portraits, often double or group portraits. Initially rendering his compositions in nearly monochromatic color schemes, in the 1980s he brightened and diversified his palette, particularly in religious compositions and the “carnival” series. Similarly, in the 1990s, he created a series of pink-and-brown still lifes.