Lot 174: Karin Jaroszynska (South African, born 1937) Stepping into the light

Stepping into the light
signed and dated 'K Jaroszynska '71' (upper right),
oil on canvas
71 x 102.5cm (27 15/16 x 40 3/8in).

Karin Jaroszynska studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in her home town of Helsinki, Finland, where she met and married fellow student Tadeusz Jaroszynski. They moved to South Africa in 1957. Jaroszynska had her first solo exhibitions at Gallery 101 in Johannesburg and Gallery Strindberg in Helsinki in 1965, and continues to exhibit regularly in South Africa and Europe.

"Jaroszynska has conceived an alternative people, like but unlike those we know. She has devised an ambiguous internal space - sometimes behind the space behind the picture-plane - and has constructed edifices within that space that frequently defy the laws of physics...There are resemblances in Jaroszynska's projection of reality to the more astringent existentialism of Balthus; there are allusions to the architectural and spatial ambiguities of Maurits Escher. But, essentially, both style and iconography are the product of a personal creative vision."

Her work is included in the collections of the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the Pretoria Art Museum and the South African National Gallery among others.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Berman, Art & Artists of South Africa, Cape Town 1983, pp. 222-223.