Page 29 - Studio International - June 1965
P. 29
Jan Lebenstein
also by giving the strange sympathy evoked in the
spectator by the image of a living human being trans
figured into a symbolic act by the very engraving of the
stone with that creature's likeness.
The other influence is no less important: it arose from
the overwhelming impression made upon him when he
saw Rembrandt's works while on a visit to Holland in
1956. Undoubtedly, it was in the example afforded by
Rembrandt that he found his ability to image pictorial
matter in terms of precious matter-to ask from it the
mysterious and sumptuous beauty that the chisel can
4 achieve only with the precious metals.
When he came to Paris for the first time, he had come have brought about a dispersion of his unique concepts.
by way of Vienna, where he had stopped to visit the He also separated himself from these groups in order to
Museum, with the avidity of one who did not know defend himself against what was, for him, negative in
whether he would ever see such works again, and of too intimate a contact with the everyday lives of other
one who is ready and anxious to learn their lineaments people in his own country. This isolation was all the
by heart. His return to Paris for the Biennale award is more necessary for him, as he thought, when he
therefore an important turning-point in his life-an arrived in France and seemed to find himself in a period
event that he had not foreseen and which had a of crisis and at the end of an epoch. It was also neces
decisive influence because, though he had come sary because in his artistic development he did not rely
intending to stay for a limited period, he has remained in advance on a definite programme. but rather allowed
in the city to this day: he saw his influence spreading himself to be guided by needs and instinct.
ever wider-he has now attained to the honour of an Lebenstein has not constructed his work according to
international audience. aesthetic theories. He rather pursues a method of poetic
1
Figure 145 1962 In order to obtain these results, he did not have to creation in conformity with his curiosity and the wide
spend vast amounts on publicity, nor was he compelled reading that his soul requires. For him, painting is the
2
Figure 117 1961 to appear in avant-garde circles. On the contrary, his most easily accessible means of expression available to
Wassermann Collection. New York life was more than ever before that of a solitary, for he make his emotional experiences external. Human
3 wished to carry out again his experiments of 1955 in problems seem to him to be more important than
Figure 7 85 1963 Poland; for at that time he was compelled to leave the technical problems and mere problems of painting.
4 meetings of groups to which he was attached, so that he Therefore, we have some explanation of what-to the
Le Rampant 1964
97 x 162 cm. might have some defence against elements that could point almost of obsession-is physically visible in his
243