22/04 - 12/06/2022
Hall: Sala Śląska
Opening:  21/04/2022, 6 p.m.

Beata Bebel-Karankiewicz used to say that she is “simply a painter”. Indeed, each of her works presented at the exhibition proves that painting was her primary artistic mode of communication and the purpose of her creative exploration was “structure, richness, and painting matter”.

In 1985, she graduated from the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków with a major in painting under the tutelage of prof. Jan Szancenbach. In 1997, she was awarded a PhD in Plastic Arts at the Faculty of Painting at the same academy. Since 1988, she was teaching at the Jan Długosz University in Częstochowa, mentoring the next generations of students. Between 2015-2017 she was a visiting professor at the School of Art and Design at Yanshan University in Qinhuangdao, China. She was involved in numerous didactic and art projects in collaboration with universities and art galleries both in Poland and abroad.

Self-portraits and still lifes remained the main themes of her works. However, it should be emphasised that the primary focus of her art were quality and the use of various painting techniques – light, colour, and composition rather than the subject matter depiction itself. In time, she turned her hand to landscapes and, as she began to focus on texture, colours, and dynamic compositions, her work gradually shifted into abstraction and symbolism.

Bebel-Karankiewicz was undoubtedly inspired by 20th-century art and this inspiration is clearly visible in various references to Jan Cybis, Artur Nacht-Samborski, Pollock’s action painting or Kapists’ works, and above all to her mentor, Jan Szancenbach. Yet, these are all creative interpretations, which emphasise the individualism and artistic intuition of a painter who invented her own, unique style.

A certain group of paintings at the exhibition is quite peculiar. They are a form of play and passion that the artist indulged in and, at the same time, they are a tribute to her many friendships. This type of portrait, usually based on a wedding photograph, is called ‘monidło’. In a typical monidło, the image from the photo is subject to many retouches, colouring, and various additions. In the wedding portraits by Beata Bebel-Karankiewicz, the artist used the method of collage – she placed faces from the photographs on a painted background, and added painted embellishments.