Julian Stanczak (1928 - 2017), Harmony - Cadium, 1991

Polish painter residing permanently in the United States, one of the pioneers of op-art. In 1940 he was, along with his entire family, arrested by the NKVD and deported to Siberia. As a result of hard labor and illness, he lost power in his right hand. He escaped with his family from the Soviet Union to Africa and settled in a camp for refugees from Poland. He spent his youth in Uganda, where he took his first lessons in drawing with his left hand. He had his first exhibition of his work in Nairobi (in Kenya). After the turmoil of the war in 1949, he emigrated with his family to the United Kingdom, where he began his studies at London Polytechnic and in 1950 moved to the USA. There he began his studies at the Cleveland Art Institute, graduating in 1954, and then studied at Yale, where he earned a Master of Art Sciences degree. In 1964 he became a professor of painting at the Cleveland Art Institute in Cleveland, Ohio. Stańczak's works are in the collections of such institutions as the Cleveland Institute of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Miami University Art Museum, Museum of Fine, Arts Boston and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Recently, a renaissance of interest in the artist's work can be observed. In 2012, the painter was ranked number 6 on the list of "15 hottest names in the art market" announced by Bloomberg-Artnet.