Objects

The photo presents an elderly man, a painter, Jonasz Stern, in his studio. The man has grey hair slicked back and is wearing a brown jumper. He is sitting at a table with jars of paint and brushes. On the edge of the table (in the foreground), there is a pile of boards, and a portrait of a man with a beard on them. On the table, in front of the painter, there is a cardboard box with a large black cat inside it. The animal is facing the painter. In the background, one can see easels and posters hanging on the wall.

Jonasz Stern (1904–1988) studied at the Industrial School in Lviv and the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. In 1933, together with other artists, he established the artistic association "Grupa Krakowska".

During the outbreak of World War II, he was in Lviv. After the Germans occupied that city in 1941, Stern was placed in the local ghetto and then taken to the Bełżec extermination camp. However, he managed to escape during the transport and return to Lviv. In 1943, during the liquidation of the ghetto in Lviv (1 June 1943), he again managed to avoid death - he survived, lying under a pile of bodies of shot Jews. From Lviv, he escaped to Hungary, to Budapest.

After the war, in the years 1954–1974, he worked as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. The experience of his own death is clearly visible in the artist's post-war works.

Marta Frączkiewicz