Zygmund Jankowski Art
American, 1925-2009
Zygmund Jankowski (1925–2009) was a dedicated and innovative painter, a colorful and generous personality, and a loved and respected teacher. His paintings have been exhibited nationally and internationally, and he has become one of the most important artists of his time on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, influential both as a painter and as the colleague and teacher of a generation of artists.
He was born into a Catholic family in South Bend, Indiana, where he raised a family and earned a living as a commercial illustrator. He began to summer on Cape Ann in 1964 and by the late 1970s had moved permanently to Gloucester, where he devoted the rest of his life to his art.
During his career, Jankowski explored a variety of styles. In the mature work, he is best described as a colorist and expressionist who paints traditional subjects with exuberant irreverence for traditional colors, compositions, and perspectives.
He disparaged imitation and delighted in breaking the so-called rules of art — not in rebellion, but from a deep understanding that perceived their limitations. He cultivated an intuitive, uninhibited painting process which allowed him to transcend conventions without rejecting them. He worked in series, painting the same subject up to twenty times in a day. “I could do the same subject a thousand times,” he said. “Each time I try it, there’s something different in me that responds.”
He neither planned nor sketched his paintings, but romanced each one anew, often to music, dancing with it, lunging at it, stroking it. While painting, he said, “you stand as a referee between the scene, your emotions, and the [painting], juggling emotion and logic, intuition and analysis.” He said his brush was a musical instrument; or he called painting foreplay and a painting the child of an artist and his subject. “For Zyg,” says a friend, “art was life, and life was art.”
Having artistic talent, he said, entails an obligation to get to work, and the choice to be an artist was a serious responsibility to a journey of self-discovery, seeking the mystery within oneself as well as within the subject. “Stay up late and do some work,” he exhorted artists. “Grab at life! Work as if five hundred years wouldn’t be enough to do all you want to do.” With tireless commitment to his art, Jankowski expressed his playfulness and wit, his generosity of spirit, and his exuberance for life in the vivid and unexpected colors and compositions of his paintings.
In Jankowski’s thoughtfully spontaneous process, one can discern a happy marriage of Catholic mysticism and obligation with the principles of Zen calligraphy, in which a few unpremeditated brushstrokes embody years of devoted study and practice. “If I’ve lost some of my religion,” he said tellingly, “my art has become all that much more important.”to
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Wine Bottles and Fruit on Table
By Zygmund Jankowski
Located in Gloucester, MA
Zygmund Jankowski (1925–2009) painted traditional subjects with exuberant irreverence for traditional rules of color, composition, and perspective. He disparaged imitation and deligh...
Category
1980s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Autumn Landscape with Purple
By Zygmund Jankowski
Located in Gloucester, MA
Zygmund Jankowski (1925–2009) painted traditional subjects with exuberant irreverence for traditional rules of color, composition, and perspective. He disparaged imitation and deligh...
Category
1980s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Still Life with Settee
By Zygmund Jankowski
Located in Gloucester, MA
Zygmund Jankowski (1925–2009) painted traditional subjects with exuberant irreverence for traditional rules of color, composition, and perspective. He disparaged imitation and deligh...
Category
1980s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Zygmund Jankowski, Come Fly with Me
By Zygmund Jankowski
Located in New York, NY
Zygmund Jankowski is known for his modernist compositions and effective use of “the white of the paper.” 'Come Fly with Me' perfectly illustrates that skill; It is signed, titled, and dated in pencil. Jankowski was born in South Bend, Indiana. After serving in the US Navy Jankowski attended the California College of Arts and Crafts, where studied with Victor DeWilde, Otis Oldfield, and George Post. Returning to the mid-west he taught at Indiana University, South Western Michigan College, Hilton Leech School of Art, the Bremen Art Center, the Niles Art Center, the South Bend Art Association, and the Rockport Art Association. Beginning in 1964 he summered in Rocky Neck, MA, and opened a summertime gallery. In the 1970s he made a permanent move to Gloucester where he held workshops at his studio. In the 1990s he moved to Lanesville. Among those institutions with work by Jankowski is the Cape Ann Museum. In their biography of the artist they acknowledge his role of inspiring a generation of Cape Ann artists...
Category
1960s Abstract Expressionist Zygmund Jankowski Art
Materials
Lithograph
$856 Sale Price
28% Off
2 Pads
By Zygmund Jankowski
Located in Gloucester, MA
Zygmund Jankowski (1925–2009) painted traditional subjects with exuberant irreverence for traditional rules of color, composition, and perspective. He disparaged imitation and deligh...
Category
1980s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Art
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Watercolor
Hillside Barns
By Zygmund Jankowski
Located in Gloucester, MA
Zygmund Jankowski (1925–2009) painted traditional subjects with exuberant irreverence for traditional rules of color, composition, and perspective. He disparaged imitation and deligh...
Category
1980s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Price Upon Request
White Farm
By Zygmund Jankowski
Located in Gloucester, MA
Zygmund Jankowski (1925–2009) painted traditional subjects with exuberant irreverence for traditional rules of color, composition, and perspective. He disparaged imitation and deligh...
Category
1980s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Price Upon Request
The Path
By Zygmund Jankowski
Located in Gloucester, MA
Zygmund Jankowski (1925–2009) painted traditional subjects with exuberant irreverence for traditional rules of color, composition, and perspective. He disparaged imitation and deligh...
Category
1980s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Price Upon Request
Landscape with Farm
By Zygmund Jankowski
Located in Gloucester, MA
Zygmund Jankowski (1925–2009) painted traditional subjects with exuberant irreverence for traditional rules of color, composition, and perspective. He disparaged imitation and deligh...
Category
1980s Zygmund Jankowski Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Price Upon Request
Two Pink Trees in a Yellow Field
By Zygmund Jankowski
Located in Gloucester, MA
Zygmund Jankowski (1925–2009) painted traditional subjects with exuberant irreverence for traditional rules of color, composition, and perspective. He disparaged imitation and deligh...
Category
1980s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Price Upon Request
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Zygmund Jankowski art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Zygmund Jankowski art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Zygmund Jankowski in paint, canvas, fabric and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 1980s and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Zygmund Jankowski art, so small editions measuring 23 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Eric Edward Esper, Liz Dexheimer, and Pauline Ziegen. Zygmund Jankowski art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $3,700 and tops out at $18,000, while the average work can sell for $9,000.