Signature p.d.: Joniak 99
On the reverse l.g.: JULIUSZ JONIAK | "PLATANY W ST. REMY '99" | 75 x 85 | 1999
Juliusz Joniak (born in Lvov, November 19, 1925) studied under Czeslaw Rzepinski and Konrad Srzednicki at the Faculty of Painting and Graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow from 1945 to 1949. He received his diploma in 1955. Since 1950, he has worked as an educator at his alma mater, and was a professor at the academy from 1980. In 1978-1981 he was dean of the Faculty of Painting, and in 1981-1987 he was pro-rector of the Academy of Fine Arts. In the early years, he participated in the Second, Third and Fourth National Art Exhibition (1951-1954), as well as in the famous exhibition at the Warsaw Arsenal (1955) and its German editions entitled "Junge Generation" in Berlin and Leipzig (1956). During this period he represented the trend of figurative painting with clear drawing and light, flatly laid fields of color. In the 1960s, he painted mysterious Interiors and Still Lifes, full of metaphorical references, in which he willingly experimented with texture in the spirit of matter painting. In the next decade, he became interested in figural compositions (the "Kaleidoscope" series of the late 1960s and early 1970s), creating pastiches of classical painting from the great eras of art ("Nude with fur according to Rubens," 1973). This theme over time took the form of monumental polyptychs (series "Charles IV with his family according to Goya", 1979-1981; "Algerian women according to Delacroix", 1987). In parallel, since the early 1980s, Joniak's paintings have been dominated by landscapes, mainly of southern countries (France, Spain, Italy). The artist draws freely on the means developed by the Post-Impressionists and Expressionists of the pre-war Ecole de Paris, and above all observes and encapsulates into a finite, beautiful form the play of pure colors in the sharp morning light. The freshness and purity of the colors is a feature that distinguishes his art from the multitude of painters fascinated by the beauty of the southern outdoors. In 1995, the artist won the 7th Magné Art Festival (France), which opened the way for him to become an honorary member of the Académie Européenne des Arts in Paris.
