March 12, 2011 – June 12, 2011
The Władysław Hasior Gallery
ul. Jagiellońska 18 b, Zakopane
An exhibiton of works by Jan Jachymiak, one of the first post-war glass painters of the Podhale region, who has lived in Chicago since 1970. This is the artist’s first individual exhibition, after a 40-year absence, displaying his most recent paintings.
Jan Jachymiak was born in 1930 in the village of Tylmanowa in southern Poland. Between 1944 and 1969, he studied and worked in Zakopane. Since 1970 he has lived in Chicago.
He learnt the technique of glass painting in the Zakopane School of Wood Crafts in the years 1946–1947 on a course organized by Jan Samuel Miklaszewski, a teacher of drawing and painting. Jachymiak painted on glass the Stations of the Cross for the Chapel of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Jaszczurówka district of Zakopane (1954) and for the Church of St Mary Queen of Creation in the village of Murzasichle near Zakopane (1958). He was awarded Second Prize, the Prize of Peace and a Gold Medal for his glass paintings displayed at the World Festivals of Youth and Students in Warsaw (1955) and Moscow (1957). In 1958, Jachymiak was admitted to the Association of Polish Artists and Designers.
The artist’s paintings were presented between 1951 and 1969 at numerous exhibitions displaying folk art of the Podhale region and Poland. These exhibitions were held across Poland and abroad; in France, England, the USA, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Austria, Finland, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia among others. Between 1970 and 1980, his works were exhibited in museums and galleries in Chicago, Cincinatti, Los Angeles, Ouray and Milwaukee.
At the beginning of the 1980s, the artist stopped painting. He returned to his artistic work only in 2010.
Jachymiak has decided to show his new works at the Tatra Museum in Zakopane as his first individual exhibition in Poland after a 40-year absence.
The paintings on display have been painted on acrylic glass (plexi). They feature religious topics, scenes of brigands and genre scenes from the lives of Tatra Highlanders. New topics also appear in Jachymiak’s works that are inspired by a constantly changing reality which is vividly and wittily commented upon in the paintings.
Zofia Rak
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At the Hairdresser’s, 2010
Photo: Jan Jachymiak jr, 2011
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A Girl, 1957
Photo: Wojciech Smolak, 2005
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A Removal, 2010
Photo: Jan Jachymiak jr, 2011
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Rescuers, 2010
Photo: Jan Jachymiak jr, 2011
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