LADISLAS KIJNO (1921 - 2012)

Sans titre, 1977 Polyptich of five oil on wood panel, signed on the last panel 150 x 50 cm (par panneau) 59 1/16 x 19 11/16 in. (for each panel) 150 x 250 cm 59 1/16 x 98 27/64 in. Ladislas Kijno “Things escape us, slip constantly between our fingers, imperceptibly, like sand ; impossible to remain in the object: there are secret and contradictory transmissions, correlations, forms, primary forces, energy, ascending currents, magnetic forces, driving tides, a constant coming and going; all that moves, all that cracks, all that holds together and it is necessary to give an account of it on this small two-dimensional surface which is the canvas.” Ladislas Kijno was born in 1921 in Warsaw and died in Saint-Germain en Laye in 2012. He attended Germaine Richier's studio at a very early age, and it was Richier herself who pushed him to dedicate himself to painting as from 1954. At the frontier between lyrical abstraction and abstract expressionism, Kijno's work is inspired by elements of reality that he translates into abstract compositions using simple lines and shapes. Kijno's canvases are in relief, and to achieve this result, he experiments with paper crumpling, canvas crumpling, and spray painting techniques. He collaborated extensively with poets, such as Louis Aragon, and multiplied the tributes to great figures of history in his paintings. This monumental work is composed of 5 panels repeating the same motifs in different color variations, and is most certainly the largest known artwork made by this artist.