Krystyna SADOWSKA (1912 - 1990), SUNSET; 1964

Watercolor, ink, printmaking, collage, paper; 101 x 66 cm
Gallery sticker from Toronto on back
Provenance: from the artist's legacy, private collection Warsaw

Artist, creator of tapestries and welded metal sculptures, lecturer at the Ontario Collage of Art. She has shown a strong interest in drawing since childhood. She gets into Warsaw's School of Fine Arts - today's Academy of Fine Arts - on a trial basis even before receiving her high school diploma. She studies painting, but also learns weaving and is fascinated by tapestries.
In 1937 she leaves as a delegate of the Polish government to the state of Parana in Brazil, where she teaches handicrafts, mainly weaving, to Polish emigrants. There she soon meets her future husband, Konrad Sadowski.
After returning to Poland, she organizes pottery workshops for the rural population of Stanislawow, and later - after the outbreak of World War II - goes to Paris. In France, he continues his painting studies at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, a college run by painter Marta Stettler, with Olga Boznańska as one of her teachers. After the Nazi army enters France, Sadowska goes to Algeria and then to London.
In London, she and her husband organize exhibitions commissioned by the Polish government-in-exile. She undertakes studies in pottery at the Central School of Art and Craft. After completing them, she leaves for Brazil, where she sets up her own art studio. At an exhibition in Rio de Janeiro, he presents a tapestry entitled. "Dream of Canada," and consequently gets an invitation to Canada from a Canadian government delegation. In Canada, he initially settles in Nova Scotia and teaches ceramics, and later opens a painting and ceramics studio. Since 1953, she has run a ceramics studio at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto.
Sadowska has won many prestigious art awards, including the Gold Medal for her tapestry at the World Tapestry Exhibition in Paris in 1937, the Silver Medal from the Brazilian government for her tapestry in 1947, the Grand Award and First Prize for her tapestry at the First Canadian Tapestry Exhibition in 1953, the Drakenfeld Prize awarded by the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts in 1958 and many others. Her first retrospective exhibition takes place at the Art Gallery of Windsor in 1997. Her works can be found in public, institutional and private collections or in public spaces, including the bas-relief Rhythm of Exotic Plants at the Finch subway station in Toronto.

In Krystyna Sadowska's works one can see an interest in ancient myth and legend and also a fascination with botany. In her works one can see dreaming mermaids, playing spirits, devils, or classical gods from mythology, which are often depicted in erotic dances. The highly individual style, full of life, is not, however, devoid of the sadness of the war trauma experienced. This is particularly evident in works such as the sculpture "Song of Burnt Cities." For Sadowska, freedom had a special meaning, which was reflected in her passionate art. The works she creates, with their often expressive strong colors, have a free spirit, which is also evidenced by the range of techniques used to create them, from painting to fabric, batik ceramics to steel monumental sculptures.