Kraupe-Świderska, Janina

Janina Kraupe-Świderska (*1921 Sosnowec)

The Heavenly Letter, 1965

monotype, linocut, textile, 450 mm×525 mm, acquired 2013, Olomouc Museum of Art, inv. no. G 14127

Janina Kraupe-Świderska is a painter and graphic artist significantly linked to Krakow, Poland. She studied at the Krakow Academia Sztuk Pieknych, where she also taught until 1980. During World War II she participated in the activities of the local conspirative theatre of Tadeusz Kantor (1915 - 1990) and later - like Kantor - she became a member of Grupa Krakowska. Her work was influenced by the philosophy of Zen and the culture of the Far East. The works of Kraupe-Świderska often relate to magic and astrology, formally oscillating between surrealism and the abstract. One example is the series of graphics in the collection of the Olomouc Museum of Art that are remarkable for the selected technique of print - formally spectacular linocuts on textile.

Barbora Kundračíková