Marek Oberlander — Polish Painting & Culture
“Born 1922 in Szczerzec near Lvov, died 1978 in Nice, France.
Oberländer — along with Jan Dziedziora, Jacek Sienicki, and Elżbieta Grabska — was an initiator and among the most active organizers of the “Against War, Against Fascism” Polish National Exhibition of Young Visual Arts, held in July of 1955 at Warsaw’s Arsenal just before the political “thaw” of 1956. The idea for the exhibition was first put forward at a social gathering held at his small apartment in the Okolnik district of Warsaw(…)Throughout this time he was also painting and drawing, creating numerous works in which he gradually cast off his original brutality and focused on creating a more intimate mood. These were largely portraits that emphasized the psyche of his models, though he also painted genre scenes and still lifes and at times turned towards abstraction. In general, his works of this period were more variegated than previously. With time he began to deform the human figure more and more radically, though he retained it as a clear symbol of individual experience.”
