Franciszek STAROWIEYSKI (1930-2009), Untitled (1970s)

Franciszek STAROWIEYSKI (1930-2009), Untitled (1970s)

pen, ink on paper

22 x 15 cm

signed and described at the bottom:

F. v. B. S. pinx 70

F. v. B. sc. A.1670 D. Jan Byk del

Franciszek Starowieyski, using the pseudonym Jan Byk, studied from 1949 to 1952 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow under Prof. Wojciech Weiss , after which he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, graduating in 1955 in the studio of Prof. Michał Bylina. In the 1960s and 1970s, he gained the greatest recognition as a poster designer, in which he quickly rivaled the coryphaeuses of this art in Poland. He cultivated a poster of the author's type, with a recognizable style based on sweeping and at the same time calligraphic drawing, and above all surprising, surreal associations. Since 1964 he was the art director of the fashionable monthly magazine "You and I". With time, the predominance in his achievements gained "pure" drawing, since 1980 often presented in the form of dynamic sessions of the so-called "Theater of Drawing", with the participation of models, audience and the artist himself, fulfilling in it the role of demiurge. He created many painting and drawing compositions emanating a surreal atmosphere of life on the verge of physical decay, being a contemporary version of the vanitas theme. Fascinated by Baroque culture, the artist has been anti-dating all his works by 300 years since 1970. The artist was the recipient of numerous awards, which he won at such exhibitions as the Sao Paulo Art Biennale 1973, the International Film Poster Exhibition, Cannes 1974, the "Annual Key Award", Los Angeles 1978. He has been to New York many times at the invitation of the Kosciuszko Foundation