Between 1946 and 1951, Tarasin studied in the painting and graphic art studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. He debuted at the 1st Exhibition of Modern Art in Cracow (1948). In the mid 1950s, he created a series of lithographs entitled Nowa Huta and its Inhabitants, in which he defied the official optimism. After 1956, Tarasin created non-figurative paintings. Their space is filled with separated elements - "items" placed on a plane or in an allusive space, which, from the 1970s, started to be transformed into dark characters - quasi-calligraphy - set against a bright background. In the 1990s, the artist restored colour to his works. Photography, which he got involved in at the beginning of the 1970s, is the least known of art disciplines practiced by him. For him, it constituted the starting point for creating graphic works, primarily serigraphs. Between 1974 and 1982, he published his own Notebooks with serigraphs, photographs and essayist commentaries regarding art and creativity. In the 1990s, Tarasin used some of his earlier photographs in oil paintings. A series of several dozen photographs by Jan Tarasin was shown for the first time in 1985 in Warsaw Zachęta Gallery during his retrospective. Another exhibition of the artist`s photographs took place in 2002 in the Starmach Gallery.
1978/2002
RC print, 40.5 x 27 cm,
signature, date and edition on the front,
edition: 1/5
Publications: In-between. Photographs and Serigraphs by Jan Tarasin, Mazovian Museum in Płock (2010); Jan Tarasin, Starmach Gallery, Cracow (1999).
A serigraph produced on the basis of this photograph was published in: Jan Tarasin. Gouaches, Drawings, Serigraphs, Biuro Wystaw Artystycznych, Olsztyn (1988).
Between 1946 and 1951, Tarasin studied in the painting and graphic art studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. He debuted at the 1st Exhibition of Modern Art in Cracow (1948). In the mid 1950s, he created a series of lithographs entitled Nowa Huta and its Inhabitants, in which he defied the official optimism. After 1956, Tarasin created non-figurative paintings. Their space is filled with separated elements - "items" placed on a plane or in an allusive space, which, from the 1970s, started to be transformed into dark characters - quasi-calligraphy - set against a bright background. In the 1990s, the artist restored colour to his works. Photography, which he got involved in at the beginning of the 1970s, is the least known of art disciplines practiced by him. For him, it constituted the starting point for creating graphic works, primarily serigraphs. Between 1974 and 1982, he published his own Notebooks with serigraphs, photographs and essayist commentaries regarding art and creativity. In the 1990s, Tarasin used some of his earlier photographs in oil paintings. A series of several dozen photographs by Jan Tarasin was shown for the first time in 1985 in Warsaw Zachęta Gallery during his retrospective. Another exhibition of the artist`s photographs took place in 2002 in the Starmach Gallery.