Czyżewski Tytus – Coloring

Czyżewski, Titus (ur. 1880 Przyszowa k. Limanowa, zm. 1945 Cracow).
Painter, poet, art critic, founding member of the group Formists (initially Polish Expressionists).
He studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków in the years 1902-07 under the direction of J.. Mehoffera, J. Unierzyski and L.. Wyczółkowski. He then stayed in Paris in 1907-09, 1910-12 and 1922-30.
Czyżewski's paintings from the period before World War I had a post-impressionist character with a strong influence of Cezaneo. W 1915 attempted to break the concept of a painting as a two-dimensional canvas, creating multifaceted images of wood and plywood. Works created in the Formist period, in years 1917-22, it is characterized by formal discipline, drawing on the experience of French cubism, folk art, especially the paintings of the Podhale region, peculiar anti-aestheticism and often a dadaistic or even surreal element. In the pictures from the years 1926-30 his love of pastiche and the grotesque comes to the fore in particular, dark tones give way to bright and contrasting colors. Czyżewski's paintings at that time were greatly influenced by his travels to France, Italy and Spain, during which he encountered a landscape full of light and colors as well as works of art that he did not know directly. In the 1930s, the artist was occupied with color searches, but having different effects than those of the Kapists. The valorized color in his paintings clearly shaped the form, whose outline was defined by a capricious yet clear line. At the turn of the 1930s and 1940s, the values decreased, the colors became more luminous and iridescent.
In years 1917-39 he also acted as a versatile art critic, publishing reviews and correspondence in numerous Krakow and Warsaw magazines.

Madonna and child, 1909
oil, canvas, 73 x 60 cm;
signed: l.d. Titus | Czyżewski;
Museum of Art in Łódź;

Portrait of Maria Prohaska, 1923
oil, canvas, 55 x 37,5 cm;
signed: l.g. Mrs. Muszka P. | Tytus Czyżewski | Paris | 923;
National Museum in Warsaw;