Oil on canvas, signed lower left “Rzepiński.”
Dimensions with frame: 74x63 cm (62x51 cm)
Czesław Rzepiński (Strusów 1905–1995 Kraków) – Polish painter, educator, and representative of Polish Colorism. From 1926 to 1929, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków under Władysław Jarocki, Wojciech Weiss, and Felicjan Kowarski. From 1929, he continued his studies in Paris among the Kapists under the guidance of Józef Pankiewicz. Close to the Colorists, he later joined the Kraków-based Zwornik group. In 1937, together with Józef Jarema, he founded the Aleksander Gierymski School of Painting in Katowice. Appointed professor at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts in 1948, he served four times as rector of the institution (1954–1967). He painted landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and figural compositions. He exhibited in Paris at the Salon d’Automne and held several dozen solo exhibitions in Poland and abroad. In addition to easel painting, he also worked in drawing, printmaking, and mural painting. Shaped by the influence of Bonnard’s painting and associated with the Polish Colorism movement, he used a bright color palette, achieving distinctive effects in his compositions through the skillful combination of cool and warm colors. His artistic career did not fully develop until after the war, when, while continuing to paint in color, he adopted a style of combining concrete objects with an almost abstract space. In the late 1940s, he drew inspiration from the works of Henri Matisse and Georges Braque. Later, while maintaining his coloristic style, he attempted to paint Socialist Realist works. In 1953, he created polychrome decorations for two townhouses in Gdańsk’s Old Town.
