Julian Stanczak was born in Poland in the year 1928. Stanczak is renown for his Op- Art style of painting. The artist had a rough life in his early years. Stanczak was sent to a labor camp in Siberia at the start of World War 2. The conditions were so severe that he lost the use of his right arm. The artist was originally left handed.
When the artist was thirteen years of age, he escaped and joined the Polish army. He would soon abandon the army and spent some time living in Africa in a refugee camp. Whilst in Africa Stanczak learned how to write and complete tasks with his left hand. The artist would spend time in London, England and then he moved to the United States in 1950 living in Cleveland, Ohio.
For his artistic education Julian Stanczak earned a bachelors degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art. Stanczak went on to earn a masters of fine arts degree from Yale University.
His first solo show was titled Julian Stanczak: Optical Paintings and was held in New York in 1964.
The artist was part of the teaching faculty at the Art Academy of Cincinnati.
In this clip a brief bio and segment on how Julian Stanczak uses color in his work:
Julian Stanczak paints with acrylics on canvas but also paints with oils on canvas and even on plastic, giving his work a very modern paint quality. I find his story inspiring and another great example of how art can be used to teach, motivate, and inspire. Stanczak had to relearn how to do everything with his non dominant arm.
Julian Stanczak is included in many prominent museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art and Smithsonian Gallery of Art.
Here we view an installation of a very large public installation made by the artist covering an older building in Cincy:
And to close we visit the studio of Julian Stanczak:
Price range information: Prints can be found starting at $2,000 and originals can reach as high as $80,000.
His wife is also a noted sculptor named Barbara Stanczak, below an example of her style.
Another wonderfully artistic family!
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