sign. p. d.: J. Cybis
signed on the reverse on canvas g.: JAN CYBIS KUŹNICA - ZATOKA II | 1966 | 65 x 81
The view of the Baltic bay in Kuźnica is part of a series of paintings created in the last period of his career, depicting seaside towns and cities, which - the most respected representative of the Polish Colorism trend - he visited during his holiday trips. He was particularly fond of making plein-air notes in Orłowo, Ustka, or Sopot, in addition to the harbor of the title. Painted "from nature" watercolors, gouaches and drawings, they became the basis for creating - already in the comfort of his Warsaw studio - oil works. A group of these exceptional landscapes was brought to the attention of Tadeusz Dominik, an outstanding student of the artist and author of a monograph devoted to him: A special place, especially in recent years, is occupied by marine themes in Cybis' paintings. Maritime - perhaps too much to say, these are rather crumbs of the sea: beaches with baskets for sunbathers, boats, wharves, piers, poor buildings. He discovered the charms of small ports with their quiet, sleepy existence. All the accumulated experience, gained over the years on still lifes and models, has borne dazzling fruit. [...] One doesn't feel the sound of waves in these paintings, the moon doesn't peek through the mirrored surface of the water, and yet there is an authentic atmosphere to the painted views. And what of the fact that he sometimes painted water with colors that could boldly be used to recreate a rock. Still, this is water! In one of his paintings, he emphasized the drawing of the wrinkles of water with black lines and brilliantly evoked their impression. [...] He painted various coves with small boats in the warm light of the ending day, or boats frozen in the blue water - as in lead - against a background of cloudy sky, or piles stuck in the sand and water, as if stepping towards the horizon - into the depths of the sea. Sometimes there will be only three horizontal planes - sky, water, beach: a bright sky with a few clouds, navy blue-graphite water (on the water white vigorous lines - windy weather) and a grayish patch of land.
In the painting on display, the spiritus movens of the Kapist grouping, who - never departing from the rich texture and "resolving the canvas in a painterly way" - managed to render the lyrical atmosphere of a small resort extremely lightly, as if without the "struggle" typical of his workshop.
♣ to the auctioned price, in addition to other costs, will be added a fee resulting from the right of the artist and his heirs to receive remuneration in accordance with the Law of February 4, 1994 - on copyright and related rights (droit de suite)
Jan Cybis (Wróblin in Opole Silesia 1897 - Warsaw 1972) began studying painting at the Academy of Art and Artistic Industry in Wroclaw (1920-1921). He then studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow under Jozef Pankiewicz. In 1924, together with a group of colleagues forming the so-called Paris Committee (abbreviated to "KP"; hence the group's name "Kapists"), he went to Paris, where he continued his studies initially in contact with Pankiewicz, and later on his own. In 1930 he took part in the first exhibition of the Kapists at Galerie Zak in Paris, later in a joint exhibition in Geneva, and after returning to Poland in 1931 also in a group exhibition at the Polish Art Club in Warsaw. In 1932 he had his first solo exhibition in Cracow. He was the main figure of the group, a promoter of assumptions that put forward the issue of color, which "was the content and form" of his paintings. His last exhibition at Warsaw's Zachęta Gallery provided an opportunity to trace his very consistent creative path. Rejecting all anecdote, he created paintings painted "with a plastic reason" - landscapes, still lifes, portraits. He was also a translator and art critic, and wrote articles, including for the Cracow-based "Voice of the Artists" In 1946 he became a professor at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, where he taught until 1968 (with a break 1951-1957). In 1955 he also taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sopot.
