Kazimierz Ostrowski (1917-1999), WITHOUT TITLE

tempera/paper, 100 x 70 cm, double-sided work
signed: KACHU OSTROWSKI

In 1952 he received his diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sopot, where he studied painting in the studio of Prof. Artur Nacht-Samborski, among others. In 1964-1987, as an educator associated with the PWSSP in Gdansk. Since 2002, ZPAP in Gdansk has been awarding the Kazimierz Ostrowski Award for outstanding achievements in painting. In 1949-1950, thanks to a scholarship from the French government, the artist stayed in Paris, where he studied in the studio of Fernand Léger. This encounter left a mark on Ostrowski's artistic personality. His "pure" paintings, as well as realizations of an ornamental nature (textiles, wall paintings, stained glass), are characterized by extraordinary decorativeness, vividness of colors and - typical of Léger - geometrization. The titles of the series of works indicate the motifs of the representations: nautical motifs ("Ports", "Shipyards"), labor ("Welders", "Steelworkers"), industry, landscape.

The presented small-format, monochromatic compositions, with distinctly landscape-like reminiscences, are characterized by the logic of construction with simultaneous lightness, "openwork". Color design is distinguished by internal dynamism and juiciness of colors.