Jan Lebenstein, L'OR ET L'ARGILE, 1970

81,0 x 130,0 cm - mixed technique, oil, canvas signed p.d.: Lebenstein 70

Sign. on back on canvas p.g.: Lebenstein 1970 | 81 x 130 cm technique mixte | "L'or et l'argile".

On the vertical loom strip, CBWA Zachęta sticker with details of the painting and cat. no. 103; on the g. loom strip, penciled title: (L'OR ET L'ARGILE), two stickers: a French transport sticker with details of the painting, next to it an ink sticker: expo ZACHETA | VARSOVIE | N 4/32



Painting exhibited and described:

- Jan Lebenstein, Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw IV - V 1992, catalogue list on insert, item 103.



This way to modernity - these words were uttered by Jan Lebenstein as he entered the basement of the Louvre. He is an artist who, as Lukasz Kossowski writes, is fully aware of his belonging to the cultural heritage. For me, the underground of the Louvre was simply one of the sources. I'm not a Sumerologist or Egyptologist, but somewhere intuitively man has the need to learn about distant civilizations that are the cradle of ours. The ancient civilizations of Babylon, Greece and Rome fascinated Lebenstein and he transformed them into his own painting material.

His fascination with ancient culture can be found in the featured painting Gold and Clay. The entrance to the ancient city is guarded by the Assyrian demon Pazuzu towering over the gate, meant to ward off evil forces. The bronze statue, made of bronze, could be seen by the artist looking at the Louvre collection. The title's gold and clay allude to the wealth of ancient Mesopotamia on the one hand, and hint at the material used to build structures in the region on the other.



♣ A fee will be added to the auctioned price in addition to other costs, based on 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 Lebenstein (Brest Litewski 1930 - Krakow 1999) studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw from 1948 to 1954 under Prof. Eugeniusz Eibisch and Artur Nacht-Samborski. In 1955 he took part in an exhibition at the Warsaw Arsenal. A friend of Miron Bialoszewski during his studies, he showed his first solo exhibition in 1956 at the Tarczynska Theater. In 1959, he won the Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris at the First Biennale of the Young in Paris, and moved to Paris permanently that year. After the series of "drawn figures" (on millimeter paper) and "hieratic figures" from 1955-1958, he paints a series of "axial figures" (1958-1962), which he exhibits in Paris and the USA. At the same time, in 1960, he starts drawing "carnets," a kind of diary, which in the future will provide the motifs used in the paintings. In 1964-1965 he paints "Bestiary," a series of textured, archaic creatures reminiscent of prehistoric excavations. Immediately after, he introduces human and fantastic figures into his paintings, acting out scenes neither mythological nor from a dream, often infused with eroticism. In 1970, he designs stained glass windows for the Centre du Dialogue in Paris. In 1971 receives French citizenship 1974 creates gouaches inspired by George Orwell's Animal Farm. In 1976-1989 he creates exclusively in gouache and pastel, taking up mythological themes and those taken from the Bible: series of illustrations to the Book of Job (published in 1979) and the Apocalypse (published in 1986) in new translations by Czeslaw Milosz. In 1989 he returns to oil painting (series "Pergamon"). The artist received, among others, the Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation Award in 1976, the Warsaw Archdiocese Museum Award in 1985, the Jan Cybis Award in 1987.