Maria Jarema (24 November 1908 – 1 November 1958) was a Polish painter, sculptor,

scenographer A scenographer or scenic designer, also production designer, is a person who develops the appearance of a stage design, a TV or movie set, a gaming environment, a trade fair exhibition design or a museum experience exhibition design. The term ori ...

and actress.

Life and career

She was born on 24 November 1908 in

Staryi Sambir Staryi Sambir (, ; ) is a city in Sambir Raion, Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine, close to the border with Poland. Staryi Sambir hosts the administration of Staryi Sambir urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Its population is approximat ...

(Polish: ) in the

Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, also known as Austrian Galicia or colloquially Austrian Poland, was a constituent possession of the Habsburg monarchy in the historical region of Galicia (Eastern Europe), Galicia in Eastern Europe. The Cr ...

(currently Ukraine). In the years 1929–1935, she studied sculpture at the

Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (, usually abbreviated to ''ASP''), is a public higher education, institution of higher education located in the centre of Kraków, Poland. It is the oldest Polish fine art academy, established in 1 ...

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, under supervision of

Xawery Dunikowski Xawery Dunikowski (; 24 December 1875 – 26 January 1964) was a Polish sculptor and artist, notable for surviving Auschwitz concentration camp, and best known for his Neo-Romantic sculptures and Auschwitz-inspired art. Biography Dunikowski wa ...

. In 1930, she co-founded the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

, radical left Kraków Group. Before the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, she mostly dealt with sculpture but after the war she focused on painting. Her works were mainly

abstract painting Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a Composition (visual arts), composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. ''Abstract art'', ''non-figurative art'', ''non- ...

s. Since 1951, she created monotypes. Using this

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...

technique and sometimes combining it with

oil paint Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. Oil paint also has practical advantages over other paints, mainly because it is waterproof. The earliest surviving ...

s and

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, she created her most famous cycles of paintings – (Penetrations) and (Rhythms). Her works show a great fascination with the human shape and its place in space as well as the depiction of movement in painting. Balancing between figurative displays and abstract signs is also a distinctive feature of her paintings. She was one of the founders of the avant-garde theatre ''Cricot'' (1933–1938) alongside Józef Jarema, Henryk Gotlib and Zbigniew Pronaszko. She is also known for her artistic collaboration with

Tadeusz Kantor Tadeusz Kantor (6 April 1915 – 8 December 1990) was a Polish painter, assemblage and Happenings artist, set designer and theatre director. Kantor is renowned for his revolutionary theatrical performances in Poland and abroad. Laureate of ...

and his

experimental theatre Experimental theatre (also known as avant-garde theatre), inspired largely by Richard Wagner, Wagner's concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, began in Western theatre in the late 19th century with Alfred Jarry and his Ubu Roi, Ubu plays as a rejection of bot ...

Cricot 2 Cricot 2 was a Polish experimental theatre company based in Kraków. It was founded in 1955 by the renowned theatre director, professional painter and assemblage artist, avantgarde set designer and art theorist Tadeusz Kantor, with artwork in the ...

'' as well as Adam Polewka's

puppet theatre Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performan ...

. Her paintings have been exhibited in a number of museums in Poland including the Zachęta National Gallery of Art. In 2018, her painting (Forms) was sold at an

auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...

for over 1 million zlotys (ca. $270,000), which made it the most expensive painting by a female artist sold in Poland at the time. In 2019, Agnieszka Dauksza published a

Nike Award The Nike Literary Award (, pronounced ) is a literary prize awarded each year for the best book of a single living author writing in Polish and published the previous year. It is widely considered the most important award for Polish literatu ...

-nominated book focusing on the life of Jarema and her artistic legacy.

Personal life

She was a sister of painter Józef Jarema and actor Władysław Jarema – the founder of the Groteska Theatre in

. She married novelist and short story writer Kornel Filipowicz.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jarema, Maria 1908 births 1958 deaths 20th-century Polish painters 20th-century Polish sculptors Artists from Kraków Sibling artists Polish women sculptors 20th-century Polish women painters

Life and career

Personal life

See also

References