Julian Stanczak (1928-–2017) & Ed Mieschkowski (1929-2017)

 These two abstract painters reigned and taught with gravitas at the Cleveland Institute of Art. While I was a student there, geometric abstract art was a formidable force. Stanczak, standing, famously was part of the NYC Op art movement. Mieschkowski, also with a base in NYC, was a prolific professional working in the area between 3 dimensional constructions and painting. Both were very influential in forming my early aesthetic of fine craft using ambiguous geometric diagrams. 

Like Stanczak, Mieczkowski participated in the pivotal 1965 exhibition "The Responsive Eye" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which launched Op Art.

Brian DiPalma made a short documentary about the MOMA exhibit: https://letterboxd.com/film/the-responsive-

After studying art in London, Stanczak immigrated in 1950 to America, where he studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art. At Yale University, where he would later receive an M.F.A., Stanczak took classes with Josef Albers, the modernist painter, who taught him about color theory and

 “Formation”, J. Stanczak, 1973, acrylic/canvas, 50” x 60”

As a child, Stanczak lost the use of his arm, caused by encephalitis during  WWII. The Polish family was sent to a labor camp in Siberia. It is a feat of super human determination that he painted these immaculately precise works using only one arm. At the Cleveland Institute of Art he famously reprimanded us students for not working hard enough.

Arroyo Dolores, E. Mieschkowski, acrylic on wood and masonite, 244 x 427 cm (96 x 168 in), 1984