Page 27 - Studio International - June 1965
P. 27

Every age, however subject it may be to doctrines and  assumption of hostility to those who work differently.
                                  collective  movements,  possesses  some  independent   It is simply the expression of a sincere soul that finds
                                  artists-solitary  figures  who  are  outside  the  scope  of  within itself that anguish that is proper to it. This form
                                  conventional  classifications  and  who  express  in  an  of art is, for its creator, both a means of self-abstraction
                                  individual way the preoccupations of their own times.   and  of  engagement  without  any  need  to  find  in  the
                                  Jan Lebenstein is one of these artists apart; his was a  event  itself  any  pretext  of actuality;  that is to say,  he
                                  sudden  apparition  in  his  native  Poland  just  at  a  time  need not necessarily adopt either realism or abstraction
                                  when,  in the West, everyone was quite convinced that  in order to accord with his own times.
                                  there  was  nothing  to  hope  for  from  the  artists  of  the   Jan  Lebenstein  was  born  at  Brest-Litovsk  in  1930.
                                  Eastern  bloc  countries.  The  works  exhibited  by  this   He  followed  a  traditional  course  at  a  School  for  the
                                  painter at the  Polish section of the  First Young Artists'   Fine Arts at Warsaw:  in these years his particular  gifts
                                  Biennale  in  Paris  in  1959 was  therefore  a  completely  became  obvious.  During  his  adolescence,  he  quite
                                  surprising  revelation.  So  extreme  did  this  discovery  regularly frequented certain  artistic  and  literary  circles
                                  seem,  that  the  Jury  decided to award  Lebenstein  the  for some time.  In about 1955, when his education was
                                  Ville de  Paris prize that had just been established and  at an end,  he  thought  it  necessary  to separate himself
                                  also to give him a scholarship for several months' stay in  from these circles, since he found his own conceptions
                                  France.  Lebenstein  owed  this  sudden  rise  to  fame  quite  different:  there  was  a  dichotomy  between  their
                                  solely to his own merits as an artist, as it was completely  problems  and  his  own.  This  division  also  took  place,
                                  unpremeditated.  He had nevertheless paid his first visit  perhaps because the intellectual climate of his country
                                  to France a few years before; he was not only unnoticed,   was beginning to change quite deeply, and to become
                                  but experienced a certain feeling of 'deception', even of  more  favourable  to  the  expression  of  individual
                                  hostility, that arose from long awaiting and expecting a  experiences  and  experiments.  At  present,  Poland  is
                                  very different effect. When he left France on that occa­  undergoing  a  process  of  development  in  the  field  of
                                  sion,  he  did  not  think  that  he  would  return  so  soon.   aesthetic  ideas:  there  is  a  liberation  of  the  means  of
                                   In  fact,  his  reservations  were  quite justified:  Leben­  expression  in  the  course  of  a  movement  that  had  its
                                  stein's art cannot be reconciled with the experiences of  beginning with the fine arts in 1954, reaching literature
                                  any other painter and the solitude that he seeks to trans­  in 1955, and, finally, politics in about 1956.
         Figure  I 00 1 9 60
         Collect,on ·  Mr.  List.  New Yo, k   mit  is  not  by  any  means  an  attitude,  and  still less  an   Lebenstein  was  at  that  time  connected  with  some






















































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