Dimensions: 92 x 92 cm
signed, inscribed and dated on the reverse: '"SILVER RELIEF" | 92x92 cm | MIKOŁAJ KOCHANOWSKI | KRAKÓW'.
Biography
Nikolai Kochanovsky was born in 1916 in Grosulov in the Kherson region of the Russian Empire (now Velyka Mikhailivka, Ukraine), and died in Krakow in 1987. From 1921 he lived in Poland. From 1938 he studied at the local Academy of Fine Arts under Paweł Dadlez, Kazimierz Sichulski and Fryderyk Pautsch. In 1939 he took part in the September campaign, during which he was injured. After leaving the field hospital, he settled in Lviv. He returned to Cracow in 1941. Since 1945 he returned to his studies; he finished his studies in 1947 in the studio of Hanna Rudzka-Cybis. Shortly thereafter, he became the first of the post-war graduates to receive a position as a senior assistant at the Department of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. He worked there for 34 years. His students included Zbigniew Bajek and Tadeusz Wiktor. At the same time, he worked on his art all the time - starting with classical painting, he quickly began searching for his own form of expression, which he found in geometric abstraction, often created using ready-made objects. He held his first solo exhibition in 1960 at the Artists' House. He participated in more than 120 exhibitions at home and abroad, including in France, Norway and Hungary. He traveled to Paris and Italy thanks to artistic ministerial scholarships. He was a versatile artist, painting oil works, creating collages, making abstract reliefs using ready-made objects, designing interiors and decorations.
