Julian Stanczak: DUO

Diane Rosenstein is pleased to announce DUO, a solo exhibition of paintings by the late American artist Julian Stanczak. This exhibition includes twelve geometric paintings with a reduced pairing of two colors. These compositions were created over a period of forty years (1970 – 2011) and articulate the artist’s abiding interest in music and his intuitive use of color to achieve visually harmonic vibrations. This exhibition of Stanczak’s paintings is Diane Rosenstein Gallery’s second solo exhibition with the artist, and the first since his recent passing on March 25, 2017.

Working with acrylics, Stanczak created meticulous compositions that center on the complexity of color relationships and their effect on forms and space. Fueled by his own personal history of shifting geography, the perceptual effect of one of Stanczak’s paintings can range from a subtle vibrating glow to a rhythmic oscillation. Stanczak’s reverence for color came from a desire to translate the drama and power of nature into a universal impression. While incredibly methodical, Stanczak worked alone on his canvases without the aid of preliminary sketches, relying solely on his own vision of a finished work.

Earlier this year, after the artist’s death, Roberta Smith observed, “He produced some of the most emotionally gripping paintings associated with the Op trend. This was achieved partly by his delicately textured paint surfaces and partly by the soft light that often infiltrated his forms and patterns, the result of an infinitesimal adjustment of the shades of one or two colors.” (New York Times, April 11, 2017).

Next summer, Julian Stanczak’s monumental “Carter Manor” mural (1973) will be re-created in Canvas City, as part of the FRONT International Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art (curated by Jens Hoffmann and Michelle Grabner).

Julian Stanczak (1928 – 2017) was an American painter and printmaker. His early life was marked by enormous personal struggle, and equally by his commitment to an uplifted outlook informed by art and music. He was born in Borownica, Poland, and when World War II broke out, he was sent to a concentration camp in Perm, Siberia. Stanczak had been right-handed before he lost the use of his right arm for good at the camp. In 1942, after his escape, he lived as a refugee in Uganda, Africa, where Stanczak learned to paint with his left hand. He immigrated to the United States in 1950, received his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1954, and the M.F.A from Yale University in 1956, where he studied with Josef Albers and Conrad Marca-Relli. His work has been included in exhibitions in the U.S. and internationally from 1948 to the present day. Important group shows include The Responsive Eye at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1965; Paintings in the White House at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1966; and Ghosts in the Machine at the New Museum, New York, 2012. Significant surveys of his work include Julian Stanczak: 50 Year Retrospective, Cleveland Institute of Art, Ohio, 2001; and most recently Line Color Illusion: 40 Years of Collecting Julian Stanczak, Akron Art Museum, Ohio, 2013. His work is included in notable collections such as Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. He lived and worked in Seven Hills, OH, with his wife, the sculptor Barbara M. Meerpohl.