Roman KRAMSZTYK (1885-1942), Still Life

oil, cardboard, 54 x 83.5 cm;
Signed l.g.: Kramsztyk

Literature: "Roman Kramsztyk 1885-1942" [monographic exhibition], Jewish Historical Institute, Zachęta Contemporary Art Gallery, 1997; Renata Piątkowska, "Between "Ziemiańska" and Montparnasse. Roman Kramsztyk," Warsaw 2004.

Roman Kramsztyk began his artistic education in Warsaw and continued in Cracow, where he studied in the studio of Jozef Mehoffer. Afterwards, he was educated in Munich and Berlin. From 1910 to 1914 he stayed in Paris, where he finally settled in 1922, but returned to Poland many times, often to Warsaw, where he was eventually killed during the pacification of the Warsaw Ghetto. While in the country in 1917, he took part in the First Exhibition of Polish Expressionists organized at the Cracow Society of Friends of Fine Arts, which was a manifestation of the tendencies of Polish avant-garde art. Dividing his time between two countries, he was actively involved in artistic life in his homeland. Roman Kramsztyk knew Henryk Kuna, Leopold Gottlieb, Waclaw Borowski and Wladyslaw Skoczylas, who together with him formed the Association of Polish Artists Rhythm, which brought together both artists from Krakow's artistic circles and those who emigrated to France and settled in Paris. Hence Roman Kramsztyk is also considered an artist from the Ecole de Paris circle. Thanks to his stay in Paris, he became acquainted with the work of the French Impressionists, particularly appreciating the works of Paul Cézanne. Active in the Rhythm Association, he represented the classical trend in the Polish avant-garde of the 1920s.
The offered painting combines both tendencies, that is, the classical subject - still life - and references to the inspiration of Cézanne's work.
Renata Piatkowska writes: "Kramsztyk certainly "diligently" studied nature, but with equal fervor he studied and admired the works of Cézanne himself. This fascination gave birth to a series of still lifes that are among the most interesting works in the artist's oeuvre. Waclaw Husarski even called this period the "Epoch of still lifes." Just how strong was Kramsztyk's interest in this motif is evidenced by the fact that he decided to show only still lifes at the Autumn Salon in 1913. (...) Still life, with the inherent freedom of constructing composition, form and color, allows the painter to exercise his eye, his hand, to try endlessly a variety of variable arrangements. Its "quiet life" is an ally of artists who can endlessly explore the interrelationship of solids and colors. Perhaps Kramsztyk treated his still lifes as an exercise, especially since in his later work the subject almost disappears or becomes one of the elements of the painting, such as in The Gourmet, The Poet and The Diviner. In both the composition and the colors, form and motif of Kramsztyk's still lifes we find inspiration and pattern taken from the works of Cézanne" (pp. 81-82).