Oil, canvas; dimensions 99 x 138 cm; signed p.d. J. Kraupe. Author's description on stretcher. Work exhibited at the House of Art BWA in Rzeszow, IX 1970, exhibition catalog item 13.
Janina Kraupe-Swiderska was one of the most interesting and original Polish artists of the second half of the 20th century. At the age of seventeen (1938) she began studying painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. During World War II, she continued her studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in the studio of Friedrich Pautsch, where she met, among others, Tadeusz Brzozowski, Tadeusz Kantor, Kazimierz Mikulski, and Mieczysław Porębski, with whom she became friends and became artistically connected. In 1942-1943, she participated in Kantor's underground theater activities. After the war, she continued her studies in painting at the Cracow Academy under Eugeniusz Eibisch and Waclaw Taranczewski, as well as in the graphics department, in the studios of Andrzej Jurkiewicz and Konrad Srzednicki.
Since 1957, Janina Kraupe was associated with the Second Cracow Group, the most important grouping of the Polish postwar avant-garde. In her paintings, the artist was largely inspired by the philosophy of Buddhism, creating complex, multi-layered, metaphorical compositions composed of interpenetrating forms and symbols.
