Draft:Bárbara Tarnowska
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Barbara Tarnowska | |
|---|---|
| File:Wedding photo of Barbara and Jan Tarnowski.jpg Barbara Tarnowska on her wedding day with Jan Tarnowski | |
| Born | Barbara Zuromska September 1, 1911 |
| Died | July 30, 1984 (aged 72) |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Occupation | Painter |
| Movement | Fusionism [cite: 3842] |
| Spouse |
Jan Tarnowski
(m. 1933; div. 1959) |
| Children | 6 (Marysienka, Andrzej, Izabela, Krystyna, Magdalena, and Pedro) |
Barbara Tarnowska (born Barbara Zuromska; 1 September 1911 – 30 July 1984) was a Polish painter known for her portraits and compositions, particularly of flowers. A prominent member of the expatriate "Group of Central European Painters," she was lauded by French art critic Henri Héraut as the "Creator of Fusionism" for her unique style that blended abstract and figurative elements. Her career spanned several continents, and her sitters included European royalty and prominent social figures.
Early life and education
[edit]Barbara Zuromska, known affectionately as Baśka, was born in Poznań, Poland, to Kazimierz Zuromski, a distinguished lawyer and notary, and Krasnoroda Ruediger von Staremberg Koszembar Lyskowska. She was one of four daughters: Halżbieta (Halszka), Krystyna (Krysia), and the youngest, Marysieńka. The family lived a privileged life in a grand three-story residence on Skarbowa Street in Poznań. The sisters' education was overseen by governesses (Fraulein and Mademoiselle) and they attended a prestigious school run by the Ursuline nuns.
From an early age, Tarnowska displayed an exceptional talent for drawing. Her mother fostered this gift by arranging private lessons with the artist Zyndram Maszkowski from the School of Fine Arts in Poznań. Under his tutelage, she mastered drawing with charcoal before progressing to watercolor, gouache, and ultimately, oil painting. Her artistic education was comprehensive, culminating in studies of Art History. In her later career, she abandoned brushes entirely, choosing to paint exclusively with a spatula.
During her teenage years, she spent several months in a sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland, recovering from a lung ailment. There, she met Adam, a young Polish agronomist, who became her first love. The relationship, conducted in secret upon her return to Poland, ended due to her father's staunch disapproval of her involvement with a married man seeking an annulment.
Career
[edit]During the war years in Budapest (1941-1945), she studied with Professor Filipkiewicz, a renowned painter from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. After the war, the family settled in Madrid, Spain, from 1947 to 1950. There, she immersed herself in the city's vibrant art scene, studying in the workshops of prominent painters Enrique Navarro and José María del Río Moreno. This period was formative, allowing her to deepen her skills in portraiture and floral compositions. She actively participated in collective exhibitions with the "Group of Central European Painters," showing her work across Spain, as well as in Spanish Morocco and Tangier.
After emigrating to Uruguay in 1950, Tarnowska quickly established herself in the local art scene. She held her first solo exhibition in Montevideo at the Gallery PETIT PARIS in 1951, followed by shows at the prestigious Gallery MORETTI in 1958 and the COLUMBIA PALACE Gallery in 1963 and 1969. To supplement the family income, she gave painting classes to a circle of students who became close friends and organized elegant teas at her home to market her art and confectionery skills.
Her international career gained momentum in the mid-1960s. She held a solo show at the BERNARDI INTERNATIONAL Gallery in Washington D.C. (Georgetown) in 1965, and another at the GALERIE DA VINCI in Paris in 1967. A significant milestone was her participation in the 1968 SALON DES INDEPENDANTS in Paris, where her work was selected by the salon's authorities. It was here that the influential French art critic Henri Héraut acclaimed her as the "Creator of Fusionism," describing her work as "a Fusion Abstract in a Figurative style committing an abundance of colors from pure gold to white on white with a classic quality."
Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, she exhibited extensively across Europe and the Americas, with solo shows in London, Palm Beach, Geneva, and Montreal. In 1972, she received a prestigious commission from the Imperial Court of Iran to paint the portraits of Empress Farah Pahlavi and her mother, Farideh Diba. During her eleven-month stay in Tehran, she painted a total of 37 portraits of various members of the Shah's family and court.
The pinnacle of her career came in 1981 when she painted the official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. The Queen reportedly took a keen interest in her spatula technique. Following this success, she traveled to Germany to paint nine members of the Wittelsbach royal family of Bavaria.
Exhibitions
[edit]Tarnowska's work was featured in numerous exhibitions worldwide.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
[edit]- 1951: Gallery PETIT PARIS, Montevideo, Uruguay
- 1958: Gallery MORETTI, Montevideo, Uruguay
- 1963: COLUMBIA PALACE Gallery, Montevideo, Uruguay
- 1965: BERNARDI INTERNATIONAL Gallery, Washington D.C., USA
- 1967: GALERIE DA VINCI, Paris, France
- 1968: Onboard the R.M.S. [cite_start]“Queen Elizabeth” during its final voyage from Southampton to New York
- 1969: CASSEL’S ART Gallery, London, UK
- 1969: COLUMBIA PALACE Gallery, Montevideo, Uruguay
- 1969: FLAIR Gallery, Palm Beach, USA
- 1970: Galerie KATIA GRANOFF, Paris, France
- 1970: Galerie MOTTE, Geneva, Switzerland
- 1971: Irene ALEX Gallery, Palm Beach, USA
Selected Group Exhibitions
[edit]- 1947–1950: With the "Group of Central European Painters" in Spain, Spanish Morocco, and Tangier.
- 1968: SALON DES INDEPENDANTS, Paris, France.
- 1969: SALON DES INDEPENDANTS, Paris, France[cite: 3852].
- 1971: Auction at GALERIE MOTTE, Geneva, Switzerland, alongside works by artists including Picasso, Kandinsky, and Modigliani.
In October 2003, a posthumous retrospective and homage to her work was co-organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Uruguay and held at the Cabildo of Montevideo.
Personal life
[edit]Barbara Zuromska met Jan Tarnowski, a law student, at a national ball in Poznań in 1929. They married on October 13, 1933. The couple's early married life was spent in Poznań, living in an apartment in her parents' building.
With the outbreak of World War II, their lives were thrown into turmoil. After Jan's diplomatic posting to Prague was cut short by the German invasion of Czechoslovakia, they fled. Baska, pregnant with their first child, was arrested along with her mother by the Gestapo in Poznań in October 1939 and interned at the Glówna camp[cite: 2350, 2352]. She was released after six weeks through the intervention of Halina Szymańska, a cousin of Jan's, who appealed to Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr. She was then escorted by German officers to Budapest, Hungary, to reunite with Jan.
The family lived as refugees in Budapest, where their first three children were born: Marysienka (1940), Andrzej (1942), and Izabela (1944). They escaped Hungary in December 1944 just before the Siege of Budapest, traveling through Austria to reach Feldkirch, where they were liberated by French forces in May 1945.
After the war, they lived in Belgium, where their next two children, Krystyna (1945) and Magdalena (1947), were born. From 1947 to 1950, they enjoyed a prosperous period in Madrid before the International Refugee Organization pressed them to continue their emigration overseas.
In March 1950, the family arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay. Their sixth child, Pedro, was born there in 1951. The initial years in Uruguay were marked by severe financial hardship. Tarnowska's marriage to Jan deteriorated, and they divorced in October 1959.
Barbara Tarnowska never remarried. From 1963, she traveled extensively, painting professionally in Europe, the United States, and Canada, while maintaining her home in Montevideo. She passed away in Montevideo on July 30, 1984, after a battle with a severe illness.
References
[edit]The information in this article is sourced primarily from the following biography written by the artist's daughter:
- Tarnowska, Marysienka. Regresando al nido polaco de las cigüeñas: Una saga de los TARNOWSKI del blasón de ROLICZ (in Spanish).