Jacek Stryjenski (1922-1996) - The Annunciation

Jacek Stryjenski (1922-1961)
The Annunciation
Gouache on paper mounted on panel
Signed lower right 82.5 x 79.5 cm

Born in Krakow, Jacek Stryjenski studied at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts from 1937 to 1939 then at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich in 1942. He then joined the School of Fine Arts in Geneva until 1944 where he worked in the studio of his uncle, the Geneva Alexandre Cingria (author of the mosaics of The Arrival of Jules Caesar and The Arrival of the Huguenots from the Old Arsenal in the City).

Painter and decorator, Jacek Stryjenski also distinguished himself in the field of mosaics and stained glass. Witness the choir of the Saint-François-de-Sales church in Chêne-Bourg and the stained glass windows of the Sainte-Thérèse church in Champel. Very active in Geneva, he produced numerous sets and puppets in collaboration with Marcelle Moynier for the city's puppet theater. Among his most famous creations is the design of the iron curtain and the decoration of the ceiling of the Grand Théâtre de Genève made of chiseled sheet metal, dotted with gold and silver glitter on a background of Murano glass stars (together forming a work referred to as Alto 1).

Jacek Stryjenski has also produced more confidential works with works approaching the cartoon, in watercolor or gouache, more rarely in oil as is the case with the Annunciation that we are presenting. This work mixes the codes of mosaic and cartoon, or even comics, which then emerged as an autonomous art. From a technical point of view, there are large flat areas of color, a palette that is both very lively and very reduced, from which emerges great simplicity and a strong plastic effect.

Public collection: Alto 1, Contemporary art fund of the City of Geneva.

Exhibitions: Modern painting, Lucerne, Kunstmuseum, 1959 - Personal retrospective, Geneva, Rath Museum, 1968 - Artistic expression, Lausanne, Museum of Decorative Arts, 1980.