Zygmund Jankowski Paintings

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.”

Artist: Zygmund Jankowski

Zygmund JankowskiWine Bottles and Fruit on Table, Circa 1985

$18,000

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 Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Zygmund JankowskiStill Life with Settee, Circa 1985

$8,500

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 Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Zygmund JankowskiAutumn Landscape with Purple, Circa 1985

$9,500

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 Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Zygmund JankowskiHillside Barns, Circa 1985

Price Upon Request

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 Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Zygmund JankowskiWhite Farm, Circa 1985

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 Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Zygmund JankowskiThe Path, Circa 1985

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 Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Zygmund JankowskiLandscape with Farm, Circa 1985

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 Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Zygmund JankowskiTwo Pink Trees in a Yellow Field, Circa 1985

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 Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Gabriel RiesnertTulips from the garden, Still life realism, Oil Painting, Contemporary , Flowers, 2024

$957

H 13 in W 9.45 in D 0.71 in

Tulips from the garden, Still life realism, Oil Painting, Contemporary , Flowers

Located in AIX-EN-PROVENCE, FR

Work : Original Oil Painting, Unique Work. Ready to Hang. Medium : Oil painting on Linen Canvas. Artist : Gabriel Riesnert Subject : Tulipes du jardin dans un verre en cuivre (Title...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Linen, Oil

Alyson KinkadeRemembering Plains no. 54, 2021

$400

H 8 in W 8 in D 2 in

Remembering Plains no. 54

By Alyson Kinkade

Located in Loveland, CO

Category

2010s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

'Contemporary Impressionist Interior Scene', Framed Oil on Canvas, 1990, 1990

$704Sale Price|53% Off

H 30 in W 24 in D 2 in

'Contemporary Impressionist Interior Scene', Framed Oil on Canvas, 1990

Located in Oklahoma City, OK

This framed 24" x 30" oil on canvas depicts an interior living space in a contemporary impressionist style. The scene features a chair facing an uncovered window during daytime, a cl...

Category

20th Century Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Melanie ParkePorcelain Red - Lake Landscape Window Flowers Fruit Botanical Still Life, 2024, 2024

$3,500

H 24 in W 24 in D 1.75 in

Porcelain Red - Lake Landscape Window Flowers Fruit Botanical Still Life, 2024

By Melanie Parke

Located in Kent, CT

In this contemporary painting in oil on canvas, a cheerful interior scene is bright and inviting with a still life arrangement of red poppies, red flowers and pale pink dahlias in a ...

Category

2010s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Frank DekkersSummer - Contemporary Impressionistic Painting of a Landscape, 2023

$9,226

H 55.12 in W 78.75 in D 1.97 in

Summer - Contemporary Impressionistic Painting of a Landscape

By Frank Dekkers

Located in Nuenen, Noord Brabant

Frank Dekkers Summer 140 x 200 cm (not framed) oil on canvas On the pictures we also show you the artist receiving the flowers on our opening of this exhibition september 3th 2023 i...

Category

2010s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Paintings

Materials

Cotton Canvas, Oil

Monika RossaFishtank - XXI century, Contemporary Figurative Oil Painting, Bright Colors, 2013

$1,022

H 15.75 in W 15.75 in

Fishtank - XXI century, Contemporary Figurative Oil Painting, Bright Colors

By Monika Rossa

Located in Warsaw, PL

MONIKA ROSSA studied painting at the University of Arizona, in the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and at the Escuela de Diseno in Barcelona. She practices drawing and easel painting....

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Paula CraioveanuSAN MARCO VENICE church INTERIOR original painting oil/canvas Paula Craioveanu, 2025

$2,400Sale Price|20% Off

H 27.5 in W 23.5 in D 1 in

SAN MARCO VENICE church INTERIOR original painting oil/canvas Paula Craioveanu

By Paula Craioveanu

Located in Forest Hills, NY

"San Marco Interior", original, unique painting, 60x80cm / 23.5x27.5in. See painting in different light conditions, in artificial and natural light. Shipped stretched ready for displ...

Category

2010s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Michael Iskowitz"Clowning Around" - Contemporary still life painting, oil on canvas, 2018

$2,800Sale Price|20% Off

H 36 in W 36 in D 0.5 in

"Clowning Around" - Contemporary still life painting, oil on canvas

Located in Nyack, NY

Michael Iskowitz creates colorful, seemingly playful paintings that often belie a more serious message. His process is somewhat spontaneous, fueled by a sense of exploration and disc...

Category

2010s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Alejandro RubioPepperonia, 2021

$1,400

H 20 in W 16 in

Pepperonia

Located in San Francisco, CA

Alejandro Rubio Pepperonia, 2021 Oil on canvas 20 x 16 inches Inspired by Uruguayan artist Joaquín Torres García, Alejandro Rubio’s meticulous attention to the formal elements of pa...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Alyson KinkadeHorse Candy, 2012

$6,300

H 50 in W 44 in D 2 in

Horse Candy

By Alyson Kinkade

Located in Loveland, CO

Horse Candy by Alyson Kinkade 50x44" oil on linen, gallery wrapped, includes black frame - adds 1/4" *due to scale, custom packing and extra lead time is factored into shipping for t...

Category

2010s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Linen, Oil

Alyson KinkadeHorse Candy no.3, 2021

$2,800

H 34 in W 28 in D 2 in

Horse Candy no.3

By Alyson Kinkade

Located in Loveland, CO

Horse Candy no.3 by Alyson Kinkade 30x24" oil on linen (images of frame coming soon) Abstraction of the great plains and farms. ABOUT THE ARTIST: "Over the years my focus has trans...

Category

2010s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Linen, Oil

Alyson KinkadeVast, Sunrise Colorado Plains, 2015

$4,200

H 37 in W 37 in D 2 in

Vast, Sunrise Colorado Plains

By Alyson Kinkade

Located in Loveland, CO

Vast, Sunrise Colorado Plains by Alyson Kinkade Abstract Landscape Oil on Linen 36x36" image 37x37" framed, black metal cradle style (see photos) ABOUT T...

Category

2010s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Linen, Oil

Previously Available Items

Zygmund JankowskiBarn and Garden, Circa 1985

Sold

H 23 in W 23 in

Barn and Garden

By Zygmund Jankowski

Located in Gloucester, MA

Zygmund Jankowski painted traditional subjects with exuberant irreverence for traditional rules of color, composition, and perspective. He disparaged imitation and delighted in break...

Category

1980s Contemporary Zygmund Jankowski Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Zygmund Jankowski paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Zygmund Jankowski paintings 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 paintings, so small editions measuring 23 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of John Hogan, Don Pollack, and Frank Faulkner. Zygmund Jankowski paintings 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.