Maria JAREMA, Birds, 1948-49

Tempera, paper, 34.5 x 47.5 cm, unsigned, accompanied by an opinion from Kornel Filipowicz, the artist's husband, dated March 7, 1986, stating the authenticity of the work. Work mentioned in catalogs (from the collection of the author's family, no. K 404): Maria Jarema, exhibition catalog, Palace of Art, Krzysztofory Gallery, Cracow XI. 1962, p. 40. Barbara Ilkosz, Maria Jarema 1908-1958, Wroclaw 1998, cat. no. 140.

Maria Jarema studied sculpture under Xawery Dunikowski at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow from 1929 to 1935. During her studies, she joined the "Cracow Group" of the so-called "First Group" (1933-1937). In the 1930s she collaborated as an actress and stage designer in her brother Józef Jarema's "Cricot" theater and Adam Polewka's puppet theater. In 1937 she traveled to Paris for the World Exhibition and stayed there for four months. After the war, she joined the Group of Young Visual Artists, centered around Tadeusz Kantor, which in 1957 was constituted as the new (second) "Krakow Group." During the Socialist Realist period, she did not participate in official artistic life. She cooperated as a stage designer with Kantor's "Cricot 2" theater (1956-1957). In 1957 she was awarded the Prize of the City of Cracow, in 1958 she received the prize of the Society of Italian-Polish Friendship at the XXIX Venice Biennale. She was initially engaged in sculpture, after the war mainly in painting, often combined with printmaking (tempera with monotype). Her abstract compositions, exploring the problem of movement and space, are arranged in cycles ("Characters", "Expressions", "Grasps", "Penetrations", "Rhythms" and others). These works are among the most important achievements of Polish art of the 1950s, predating similar explorations of kinetic art and op-art in the world. The artist was also involved in set design and applied graphics (poster, book and press illustration) and journalism.