"Mniszka" - an early portrait of Zygmunt Menkes from before the so-called "Paris period". The artist initially used the name Józef (signature JMenkes) and is mentioned under this name, among others. in the Lviv catalogs of the exhibition of the Jewish Art Lovers' Circle in 1920 and the TPSP Spring Salon in 1932. His work at that time included portraits and genre motifs, as well as flowers and landscapes. The work comes from the period of studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. Only a few of Menkes' works from 1921 are known. The presented painting is a rare example of the artist's early work, which reveals the painter's great talent. The figural composition (plan of the painting) has a lot in common with the painter's later abstract works.
Provenance:
Private collection in Vienna
Biography:
Zygmunt Menkes (Lviv 1896 - Riverdale, New York 1986) began learning painting under the supervision of Kazimierz Sichulski at the Lviv School of Artistic Industry. Then, in the years 1919-1922, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow with Wojciech Weiss. In his youth, he was associated with the Zionist movement. From his early teenage years, he made a living from conservation work in churches and painting (Christian) religious pictures. In 1922 he went to Berlin, where he met Alexander Archipenko and benefited from his advice. From 1923 he lived permanently in Paris. Associated with the artists' community of École de Paris, he was friends with, among others, with E. Zak and M. Chagall. He participated in the Autumn, Independent and Tuileries Salons, and exhibited in many Parisian galleries. He often came to the country; he was a member of the Lviv group Nowa Generacja and the Krakow Zwornik Association of Visual Artists, he participated in exhibitions in Lviv and Warsaw. He traveled a lot, including: in 1928 he was in Berlin, and in 1935 in Spain (together with A. Nacht-Samborski). In 1935 he went to New York, where he settled permanently and where in 1936 he had a solo exhibition. For years, he collaborated with local art galleries and lectured at the Art Students League. He painted portraits, nudes, figural compositions, still lifes and landscapes, and after 1940 also paintings referring to Jewish martyrdom. His painting underwent various stylistic changes. During the Paris period, the artist's paintings were close to expressionism and fauvism. In the post-war period, he limited the colors, introduced strong contour lines, rich textures, and over time, increasingly clear geometric forms.
