Jan Rubczak
1884 - 1942

Having graduated from a three-year teacher-training college in 1904, Jan Rubczak began studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, first under Florian Cynk (until 1905), and then under Józef Pankiewicz (until 1911), who organized the first faculty of graphic arts in Poland. Probably at Pankiewicz's instigation, Rubczak traveled to Paris during the period of his studies in Kraków (1908-1909). He continued his education at the Akademie für Graphische Künste und Buchgewerbe in Leipzig, and then at the Académie Colarossi in Paris where he settled around 1911, staying for many years. Rubczak's oil portrait painted by Roman Kramsztyk may have originated in this period. From Paris he traveled, among other places, to Rouen, Chartres, Brittany and southern France, as well as to Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain.

He was one of the founding members of the Society of Polish Artists in Paris (1911). In 1915 he participated in the Polish Literary-Artistic Society. He was a friend of Tadeusz Makowski and the art-dealer Leopold Zborowski. As an experienced and skilful engraver, he exchanged ideas with younger Polish graphic artists Władysław Skoczylas and Franciszek Prochaska. Beginning in 1917, he ran his own school of graphic arts.

He continued this activity after his return to Poland (1924) in Ludwika Mehofferowa's Free School of Painting and Drawing, and later at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts. There he was an assistant to another student of Pankiewicz's, Jan Wojnarski, in the Faculty of Graphic Arts. He had joined the Society of Polish Artists "Sztuka" during his stay in Paris, and had also sent his works for exhibition of the group of Formists. In 1925 he co-founded the Artists Guild "Jednoróg" (Unicorn). In the 1930s he belonged to the Krakovian artistic establishment, being on the board of the Society of Friends of the Fine Arts (1932), an institution he had boycotted five years earlier together with other artists. Arrested with a group of artists in April 1942 by the Gestapo during a round-up at the Artists' Café at Łobzowska Street in Kraków, he was transported to Auschwitz, where he perished one month later.

Jan Rubczak made his name as an eminent graphic artist. From the beginning of his career he practiced etching and aquatint, occasionally copperplate, and lithography, among other printing techniques. He also painted in oils, and sometimes, watercolors or pastels. Both his graphic work, in which he paid more attention to the distinctness of line, composition and chiaroscuro and less to technical subtleties, as well as his painting bear the strong imprint of his teacher, Józef Pankiewicz. Among his favorite subjects, taken up in each technique he practiced, were townscapes: panoramas and views of lanes and boulevards in Poland and France, frequently dominated by architectural motifs such as churches or bridges. The variation on Realism that he created through the adoption of certain achievements of Postimpressionism - including Japanese perspective, a Cézannesque rhythmization of architectural elements with a slightly cubist rendering of forms and exploitation of light to enliven the image - was referred to as the École polonaise in Paris. In Rubczak's early paintings one can sometimes discern some elements of the synthetism of Pont-Aven School, and later the intensification of color brought him closer to the fauvists. After the artist's return to Poland, his landscapes, which often employed industrial motifs (mines, oil-wells, railway), assumed more realistic traits.

By following in the footsteps of his Krakovian-Parisian Professor Pankiewicz, Rubczak did not become an innovator in the field of painting or graphics, but his oeuvre possesses great artistic sophistication, uniting Polish experiences with the achievements of French art.

Rubczak's one-man shows took place at the Society of Friends of the Fine Arts in Kraków (1913), where the artist had had his debut in 1908, and also at the Society of Polish Artists in Paris (1915). In 1912 the artist exhibited with Leopold Gottlieb at the Society of Friends of the Fine Arts in Lvov. He participated in exhibitions of "Sztuka" Society (1909-1913), Unicorn (Kraków 1925/1926, Łódź 1926, Lvov 1926/1927, 1929; Warsaw 1932) and the Formists (Kraków 1917, Lvov 1918, Paris 1922). At the Nationwide Exhibition in Poznań (1929) he was awarded a silver medal. He exhibited at the Parisian Salons (from 1911) and galleries (1920, 1922). He participated in the famous exhibition of Polish artists living in Paris, which took place at Jose Dalmau gallery in Barcelona (1912), and he exhibited in Vienna, Helsinki, Prague, Brussels and Buffalo, NY (Albright-Knox Gallery). In 1914, he participated as an "Sztuka" Society member in the XI Venice Biennale. He was involved in Polish artistic life in Paris through exhibitions of the Society of Polish Art in Paris (1914-1917), L'Association France-Pologne (1924-1925), the Association of Polish Artists (1927), and Art et Artistes Polonais (1932).

Works in the collection: