Julian Stanczak was a Polish-born American painter and printmaker, who represented Op Art movement. In his works, he created sophisticated optical effects, using vibratory lines and complimentary color schemes.
Background
Julian Stanczak was born on November 5, 1928 in Borownica, Poland. He was a son of Victor Stanczak and Elizabeth (Cwynar) Stanczak. During World War II, Stanczak and his family were forced into a labor camp in Siberia, where they survived extreme conditions. Stanczak ultimately fled to a Polish refugee camp in Uganda in the late 1940's. Julian came to the United States in 1950 and seven years later received American citizenship.
Education
In 1954, Stanczak graduated from Cleveland Institute of Art with Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Later, he enrolled at the School of Art and Architecture at Yale University, where he studied under Josef Albers and Conrad Marca-Relli. Julian graduated from the school with Master of Fine Arts degree in 1956.
Stanczak's first major solo exhibition took place at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York. In the early 1960's, Stanczak took advantage of the use of wavy lines and contrasting colors to make his works more vibrant. The work "Provocative Current" (1965) is a notable example of this unique style. This style of painting also paved the way for more complex artworks, constructed with the rigidity of different geometrical shapes. However, it maintained the softness with many levels of color transparency.
In the 1980's and 1990's, Stanczak retained his geometric structure and created compositions with bright or muted colors. Later, the painter produced large-scale series, consisting of square panels, upon which he examined variations of hue and chroma in illusionistic color modulations, a vivid example of which is "Windows to the Past".
In addition to being a painter, Julian also held a post of a teacher at the Art Academy of Cincinnati during the period from 1957 to 1964. He also served as a Professor of Painting at Cleveland Institute of Art between 1964-1995.
Julian was a member of American Abstract Artists group and International Platform Association.
Personality
Julian Stanczak was a firmly optimistic artist, despite injuries in a Soviet labor camp during World War II that rendered his dominant right arm useless.
Connections
Julian Stanczak married Barbara Stanczak on June 10, 1963. Their marriage produced two children — Danuta M. and Christopher.