Maria Jarema, "Sitting figure".

Tempera, 28x22 cm, framed 41x51 cm

Maria Jarema (1908-1958). painter, sculptor, member of both Cracow Groups. From 1929 to 1935 she studied sculpture in the studio of Xawery Dunikowski at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. In the 1930s, she collaborated as an actress and stage designer with her brother Jozef Jarema's theater "Cricot" and Adam Polewka's puppet theater. In 1937 she traveled to Paris for the World Exhibition. During the Socialist Realist period, she did not participate in official artistic life. She worked at Kantor's "Cricot 2" theater (1956-1957). In 1957 she was awarded the Prize of the City of Cracow, in 1958 she received the prize of the Society of Italian-Polish Friendship at the XXIX Venice Biennale. She was initially engaged in sculpture, and after the war mainly in painting (tempera with monotype). Her abstract compositions, exploring the problem of movement and space, are arranged in cycles ("Characters", "Expressions", "Grasps", "Penetrations", "Rhythms" and others). These works are among the most important achievements of Polish art of the 1950s. The artist was also involved in stage design and applied graphics (poster, book and press illustration) and journalism.