Barbara Zbrożyna, Abstract Composition 2

lithograph, paper, sheet size 63x49 cm, signed and dated. at the bottom " II lithograph (author's copy (print.A.Opałka 1980 BZbro..." in pencil

Barbara Zbrożyna (1923-1995)Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow under Prof. Xawery Dunikowski - 1945-1947, and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in the atelier of Prof. Franciszek Strynkiewicz - 1947-1952. From 1951 to 1954, she participated in the reconstruction of historic sculptures in Warsaw. Co-founder of the avant-garde Group 55. Author of figural sculptures, numerous portraits, spatial compositions, monuments. Her style evolved from realism (the famous 1949 sculpture of a peddler in Warsaw's Mariensztat), through synthetic simplification and expressive-metaphorical deformation to abstraction. The overriding principle of Zbrożyna's creative work was to see reality through the existence of man. This resulted not only from the sculptor's rich artistic and pedagogical experience, but also from her tolerance of human frailties. Sculpture did not completely fill the area of Zbrożyna's creative explorations. Drawing became an equal means of artistic expression. From time to time she would abandon sculpture to devote herself fully to drawing on paper, freely deformed, fully organic shapes. Into her drawing fantasies she wove a series of understated forms intended to express human drama, grief over the inevitable. In 2008, Warsaw's Zachęta Gallery presented a monographic exhibition of the artist.