Jan Lebenstein (1930-1999), IN THE OASIS, 1988.

gouache, watercolor/paper, 97 x 48 cm
signed and dated p.d.: Lebenstein 88

Studied painting at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts (1948-54), participated in an exhibition at the Arsenal (1955). Since 1956 he worked with the Theater on Tarczynska created by Miron Bialoszewski. In 1959 he won the main prize at the First Biennale of the Young in Paris, where he settled permanently.
The work is associated with the theme of biblical stories, to which the artist often referred by making numerous illustrations (as to the text of the Apocalypse newly translated by Czeslaw Milosz) and designing monumental decorations (including stained glass windows). Since the 1970s, he has used a distinctive, subtle line that remarkably combines economy of expression and baroque excess. The subject matter and character of the works weld together an almost impossible combination - asceticism and eroticism. Thanks to these treatments, the field of interpretation is opened up, and the scene itself escapes unambiguous reading.