Stanislaw GALEK (1876-1961), Mother and Child
oil, cardboard
51.5 x 39.5 cm
Signed l.d.: St. Gałek
Stanislaw Gałek - painter and sculptor, known primarily as a Tatra landscape painter - initially studied at the Vocational School of Wood Industry in Zakopane, where he later - in 1896-1899 - taught drawing himself as an assistant to Edgar Kováts. In 1899-1900, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow under Jan Stanislawski and Jacek Malczewski. Then, after 1900, he further trained at the Königliche Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich and at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Jean Léon Gérôme. After returning to Poland, he settled in Zakopane. In 1910 he traveled to Italy (Capri landscapes) and Crimea. From 1912 to 1916 he taught at the Vocational School of Kolomyia, and from 1916 to 1931 at the School of Wood Industry in Zakopane. He was a member of the "Podhale Art" society, and from 1925 was a member of the TZSP in Warsaw. Since 1900, he showed his works at numerous exhibitions, including many times at the TPSP in Krakow and Lviv, at the TZSP in Warsaw (continuously since 1907), in Poznan (participation in the General National Exhibition of 1929). He also exhibited abroad in Vienna, Berlin (1910) and Budapest (1930). After World War II, he participated in ZPAP exhibitions in Zakopane; he had a jubilee exhibition there in 1960. Gałek, considered one of the best painters of the Tatra Mountains, was very popular. His particularly favorite region was the surroundings of the Morskie Oko Mountains. He also painted seaside views, genre scenes and portraits. He designed kilims for the Zakopane "Kilim" association.
