Dimensions: 77 x 61.5 cm
signed, dated and inscribed at the bottom: 'ANTONI | MICHALAK | 1959 N.Y.'.
On the reverse, inventory number: 'WKZ-5333/120/94 | item 1' and stamps with description
Origins
family collection, New York-Warsaw (purchased directly from the artist's studio)
Biography
"Antoni Michalak student of Milosz Kotarbinski, Konrad Krzyzanowski and Tadeusz Pruszkowski, member and one of the founders of the Brotherhood of St. Luke, formed in 1925 by the participants of the first painting plein-air in Kazimierz Dolny. The grouping was modeled on medieval painting guilds. Its purpose was not only to bring together artists professing a similar artistic ideal, but above all to provide material and organizational self-help. After forming the brotherhood, Michalak received a scholarship from the French government for a year's stay in Paris. In 1926, he toured Italy and Austria. Three years later, at the General National Exhibition in Poznań, the artist was awarded a silver medal for lifetime achievement. In 1933, he settled in Lviv. At that time he created stained glass designs for the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo.
Michalak considered one of the leading representatives of the sacred art trend in Polish painting of the 1920s. and 1930s, known as the author of large-scale religious and moralistic representations and portraits. His works are in the largest Polish museum collections (including Warsaw, Wroclaw, Lodz, Bydgoszcz, Torun) and in private collections."
