Janina Kraupe-Świderska

In 1938, Kraupe-Swiderská began her studies at the Akademia Sztuk Pięknych/ Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. For the next two years she studied under the leadership of professor Paweł Dadlez (1904-1940). At the outbreak of the second world war, she left the Academy and worked in the studio of Fryderyk Pautsche (1877-1950) at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Krakow, along with Tadeusz Brzozowki, (1918-1987), Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990), Kazimierz Mikulski (1918-1998) and Mieczyslaw Prebski (1921-2012). As with her classmates, she participated in the activities of Kantor's conspiracy theatre (1942-1943). As early as 1945 she returned to the Academy. She studied painting under the leadership of Eugeniusz Eibisch (1896-1987) and Wacław Taranczewski (1903-1987), and graphics under the leadership of Andrej Jurkiewicz (1907-1967) and Konrad Srzednicki (1894-1993).

Kraupe-Swiderská's early works, in particular her portraits (Portret P. Brzozowskiej/ Portrait of P. Brzozowská, 1940

Kraupe-Swiderská took a study trip to Holland during which she made contact with the Cobra Group (1948-1951).

Janina Kraupe-Swiderská's father died in 1950. The traumatic experience initiated her interested in occultism and astrology.

Under the influence of the unexpected initiation experience of the impulsive, automatic painting of "internal reality", Kraupe-Swiderská worked on the series of 18 monotypes of Metamorfozy/ Metamorphoses (1955). Instead of monochromatic black-and-white, she gradually preferred more varied colours and, as far as techniques are concerned, she began to use linocut more frequently (Metamorfozy/ Metamorphoses, 1963). Metaphoric painting, greatly influenced by surrealism, is typical of her works from the 1950's (Gorgona, 1959). In the early 1960's a more serious reflection of musical themes started to appear in her works for the first time.

In the mid 1950's Kraupe-Swiderská participated in exhibitions of Polish art abroad. Her works were included in exhibitions in Copenhagen, Minsk, Kiev, and Vienna (1955), and later in Montreal, New Delhi, Calcutta, Madras, Leipzig, and Berlin (1956). She spent the autumn of 1956 in Paris and in western France.

Kraupe-Swiderská worked on illustrations for Konstanta Ildefons Galczyński's book Niobe.

In the early 1960's, in the year of her 40th birthday, an individual exhibition of her work was held in Palac sztuki/ The Palace of Fine Arts in Krakow (accompanied by a catalogue with a text by Zofia Ratkowska-Wielowieyska).

The Zachęta in Warsaw and the Krzysztofora Gallery also held extensive individual exhibition of her work. The summary catalogue included an introductory study by professor Mieczysław Porębski (1921-2012).

In the early 1980's a distinctive abstract language and a sort of "esoteric script" started to appear more frequently in the works of Janina Kraupe-Swiderská. For example the musical motifs (Preludia Chopina/ Chopin's Preludes, 1985

Kraupe-Swiderská was appointed a professor at her Alma Mater, Akademie Sztuk Pięknych/ the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow.

In the mid 1980's Kraupe-Swiderská also worked on the cycle Transmutace/ Transmutations (1984). It was a response to a serious disease which she overcame and which caused her to contemplate shared energy, the bond between the human soul and the landscape in which we live, as well as the game animals and plants.