Late in his career, a newfound sense of freedom led Stanczak to explore impulse and intuition in painting. The undulating curves in Warm Yellow are the result of Stanczak’s confident application of his signature tape, now placed in sweeping, free-form, unbroken lines. While the lines create organic shapes on the canvas, the start and stop point of each is anchored to a grid that stretches, with mathematical precision, from edge to edge.
Stanczak's Succession, 1980-2013, emantes light - Barbara Stanczak explains how Julian Stanczak carefully balanced 30 different colors to create the painting’s luminous effect and writes about why this work remains one of her favorites. In the essay, she details two enduring goals of Stanczak’s artistic practice: achieving “color melt-down” and “metamorphosis.”
A new essay explores how Stanczak created the warm, radiant glow of Green Light, 1973. “In Green Light, neither shapes nor colorants fight for individual recognition; rather, they are all subservient to the filtration of warm light. ” —Barbara Stanczak on Green Light, 1973. Click to read the full essay.
Welcome back to the Stanczak Color Quarterly, the newsletter celebrating the work of seminal Op Artist and master colorist Julian Stanczak. Read on to discover more about Chase, 1976–77, and to learn more about recent Stanczak exhibitions and news. Chase shows four curving columns, divided into pairs of two. The pairs appear to be painted using two different sets of colors. However, within every column, Stanczak applied the same colors in the same order—with only one exception. In a new essay, Barbara Stanczak shares the colors used (showing the original color swatch) and details Julian Stanczak's method for effecting the dramatic visual color shifts we see on the canvas.
Welcome back to the Stanczak Color Quarterly, the newsletter celebrating the work of seminal Op Artist and master colorist Julian Stanczak. This issue features a 1998 work, Low Sound. At first glance, Low Sound appears to be painted in black and white. A closer look reveals the painting's predominant color to be purple (or, to be precise, two different purples). “Low Sound looks deceptively simple upon first encounter, but the longer the viewer spends with the painting, the more they experience a number of magical touches. ” —Barbara Stanczak on Low Sound
Welcome back to the Stanczak Color Quarterly, the newsletter celebrating the work of seminal Op Artist and master colorist Julian Stanczak. In this issue, we investigate a 2013 work to discern the number of colors used to create the distinctive Stanczak ‘glow.’ Read on to discover more; to hear about recent Stanczak exhibitions; and to see press coverage of the new Stanczak documentary. Plus, we highlight an exciting new international collaboration.
Julian Stanczak, a native of Poland who pioneered Op Art in the 1960s, was a poet of light and color. He carried out his work for decades in Cleveland with almost unimaginable precision for a right-handed person who lost the use of his right arm after suffering beatings in a Soviet labor camp during World War II. Stanczak also enjoyed a late-in-life surge of interest in his work and a big leap in his prices before he died in 2017 at age 88. And now, thanks to New York-based documentary film director Tomasz Magierski, also a native of Poland, Stanczak is about to get his due, cinematically speaking. On Sunday at 3:30 p.m., the Cleveland Institute of Art, where Stanczak taught for decades as a revered professor, will host the world premiere of “Julian Stanczak: To Catch the Light,’’ an hourlong documentary on the artist and his life.
Welcome back to the Stanczak Color Quarterly, the newsletter celebrating the work of seminal Op Artist and master colorist Julian Stanczak. This issue presents three paintings that each use different means to hold our attention as they play with our perceptions of light and depth. While all three use a similar geometric structure, the colors on each canvas engender vastly different experiences for the observer. Read on to discover more about each work, view recent Stanczak exhibitions, and see press coverage—including a vintage clipping from the archives.
Welcome back to the Stanczak Color Quarterly. This newsletter celebrates the work of seminal Op-Artist Julian Stanczak, honoring his rigorous investigation—and enduring love—of color. We're happy to present this 2nd issue, which invites you to explore Brisk, 1980.
This newsletter celebrates the work of seminal Op-Artist Julian Stanczak, honoring his rigorous investigation—and enduring love—of color. Our inaugural issue invites you to enjoy his 16-panel constellation painting Complementaries = Yellow, 2007.
A selection of Julian Stanczak's work is on view in the Lobby Gallery at 499 Park Avenue through September 13, 2019.
Julian Stanczak is included in Bauhaus and America. Experiments in Light and Motion, a group exhibition that focuses on artists who, after the Bauhaus was closed in 1933, emigrated to America to carry forward their ideas and experiments there.
Julian Stanczak and Jessica Stockholder are included in the FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art's first edition titled An American City: Eleven Cultural Exercises, running July 14, 2018 through September 30, 2018.
Julian Stanczak is the subject of DUO, a solo exhibition of geometric paintings with a reduced pairing of two colors at Diane Rosenstein in Los Angeles.
Watch the short documentary titled Harmonies of the Abstract about Julian Stanczak by Vincent Prochoroff.
It is with the saddest regret that Mitchell-Innes & Nash announces the death of Julian Stanczak.
The Museum of Modern Art has reinstalled its fourth-floor collection galleries with works exclusively from the 1960s. Interweaving works from all of MoMA’s curatorial departments and the Museum Archives, this presentation focuses on a decade in which interdisciplinary artistic experimentation flourished, traditional mediums were transformed, and sociopolitical upheaval occurred across the globe. The galleries proceed chronologically, with work installed by year. This organizing principle steps back from the classification of galleries by art historical themes or “isms” and instead aims to provide a variety of fresh discoveries and unexpected connections. The product of a collaborative effort among curators from all departments, the presentation will undergo periodic reinstallations, reflecting the depth and richness of the Museum’s collection and the view that there are countless ways to explore the history of modern art, architecture, design, and the moving image.
In celebration of fifty year anniversary of William Seitz's "The Responsive Eye"at MoMA, MACBA has organized "Geometric Obsession," bringing together 30 pieces of American abstract art in dialogue with contemporary artists who have continued the Op Art legacy to the present.
The oldest award of its kind in the United States, the Arts Prize is a testament to the standard of excellence and quality of artists in Northeast Ohio. In addition to artists, the Arts Prize honors individuals who have expanded the community’s participation in the arts and helped make the region more hospitable to creative artistic expression.
Major artists and arts advocates in Cleveland, among them concert promoters Mike and Jules Belkin and leading Op Art painter Julian Stanczak, are among the artists who have been awarded the 2015 Cleveland Arts Prize, the organization announced.
The winners of the annual awards, now in their 55th year, will be honored at the Cleveland Museum of Art at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 25.
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Stanczak, an internationally recognized artist and major figure in the Op Art movement, is a Special Honoree for 2015. He won the Cleveland Arts Prize in 1969.
Line Color Illusion: 40 Years of Julian Stanczak showcases paintings and prints collected by the Akron Art Museum since 1970. The exhibition documents both Julian Stanczak’s impressive career as a master of color and the museum’s longstanding commitment to his work.