Erna Rosenstein, COMPOSITION WITH A FISH, 1963

48 x 62.5 cm - pastel, charcoal, gouache, paper mounted on cardboard

48 x 62.5 cm—dimensions inside the mat
signed in black pencil: Erna Rosenstein 1963


♣ Droit de suite: ♣ An additional fee will be added to the Purchase Price pursuant to the right of the artist and her heirs to receive remuneration in accordance with the Act of February 4, 1994, on Copyright and Related Rights (droit de suite).

Erna Rosenstein (Lviv 1913 – Warsaw 2004) studied at the Wiener Frauen Akademie from 1932 to 1934, and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków from 1934 to 1936 under the guidance of Prof. Wojciech Weiss. During her studies, she was associated with the circle of the first “Krakow Group,” participated in the preparation of Cricot Theater productions, and appeared herself in the play “Lajkonik krakowski.” In 1937, she traveled briefly to Paris. Shortly before World War II, she moved to Lviv. After escaping from the ghetto there, she went into hiding in Warsaw. Following the Warsaw Uprising, she stayed in Grodzisk and Częstochowa, and after the war ended, she returned to Kraków. She exhibited with the Young Artists’ Group (1946) and at the First Exhibition of Modern Art (1948–49). In Kraków, she married Artur Sandauer. In 1949, she moved to Warsaw. She began exhibiting again in 1955, and from 1957 onward, she became a permanent member of the reactivated, so-called “Second Kraków Group.” She participated in the Second and Third Exhibitions of Modern Art in Warsaw in 1957 and 1959, as well as in numerous exhibitions, open-air events, and symposia of the avant-garde movement of the 1960s, including regular participation in the Koszalin Open-Air Events in Osieki (1964–1978) and elsewhere. She also exhibited numerous times at the Festivals of Polish Contemporary Painting in Szczecin (1962–1988), the Kraków Meetings, the Fine Arts Festivals at Warsaw’s Zachęta, and elsewhere. In 1972, she was awarded the Cyprian Kamil Norwid Art Critics’ Prize. She creates paintings, drawings, collages, artist’s books, and spatial objects, all of which are united by surrealism—expressed through surprising, poetic combinations of meaningful elements, dreamlike imagery, and a wealth of associations and imagination. The artist is also a renowned poet; she has published several collections of poetry, including with Czytelnik and Wydawnictwo Literackie.