Arika Madeyska (1928-2004), Untitled (Stiudium of a decanter)
Oil on paper, 10.2 x 9.2 cm (paper) / 19 x 14 cm (frame).
Signed in the upper right corner.
Work from the collection of the artist's daughter.
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Arika Madeyska was born in 1920 in Warsaw, in a noble and intelligentsia family with patriotic traditions (her father Władysław Lubicz-Orłowski was an agricultural engineer, and during World War II was an active member of the Home Army. In 1953 Madeyska graduated from the State School of Fine Arts in Sopot, where she studied painting under Artur Nacht-Samborski and Jacek Żuławski. There she met her first husband, Roman Poray-Madeyska, an assistant in the mural painting department. Soon after Madeyska graduated, the couple settled in Warsaw, where she quickly became involved in bohemian life. In Warsaw, Madeyska began her artistic career and gained recognition from both the public and critics, as well as official institutions that awarded her numerous prizes, even as she refused to conform to the Socialist Realist style, preferring to create in her own pictorial language. Madeyska began exhibiting and winning awards in the late 1950s: her first solo exhibition took place in 1959 at the Salon of New Culture in Warsaw. As she said, "I worked a lot and painted all the time. I was quite well known. I was invited to all exhibitions, I received awards, museums bought my paintings, and some even bought me. I was promoted without looking, it just happened."
However, despite her successes - but also because of personal problems, among other reasons - Madeyska decided to settle permanently in Paris in 1966. The first years in the capital were very difficult, as the artist lived in great poverty. After a while, however, her situation improved thanks to the help of other Polish émigrés - both from artistic circles and "Kultura" - but also thanks to her artistic talents. Madeyska began working as a restorer, first in the studio of Joanna Wierusz-Kowalska (thanks to her, she took part in the restoration of the Fontainebleau frescoes), and later she was self-employed. Since 1972 - when she married Jacob Carlo and gained freedom of movement, which she had been deprived of for a long time due to the revocation of her passport by the communist authorities - she traveled extensively around the world. At this time she began to exhibit again: earlier her painting career had suffered due to the difficult economic situation and the resulting need to work, which prevented her from concentrating on her artistic pursuits. In 1991 Madeyska established contact with the country and began to exhibit there again. She died in Paris in 2004.
Madeyska's style underwent many changes over the years: from figurative cityscapes to abstract paintings with geometric elements, dominated initially by lines similar to some of Mondrian's works. Over time, these lines began to become more and more rounded, eventually evolving into circles. Despite these changes, however, Madeyska remained focused on small formats and subtle, discreet colors throughout her life. Her work has been exhibited in many galleries around the world, including Japan, Brazil, Switzerland, Slovenia and the United States. She has won many national and international awards.
