Julian Stanczak’s Contribution to Cincinnati Art
City Beat, 04/19/2017
Steven Rosen

Julian Stanczak, the Polish-born American artist who lived near Cleveland and did important work in Cincinnati, had an international reputation that was only growing when he died on March 25 at age 88.

The abstract art that he called “perceptual painting” — sharply delineated lines and sections of color that seemed to change or move based on the light and the viewer’s movements — made a major cultural impact when Stanczak’s first show, Optical Paintings, opened in New York in 1964. He became known as a progenitor of Op Art, which took its name from that show.

But, until recently, that was seen as a fad that had faded. The recent revival, in my opinion, is due to a realization that at its best, Op Art is capable of the same kind of spiritual, questing dimension as a Mark Rothko painting or an Agnes Martin grid.

Stanczak represented its best, especially with his exquisite choice of colors and geometric shapes and his wise handling of straight and curved lines. As was pointed out in The New York Times obituary, a major New York Gallery — Mitchell-Innes & Nash — had mounted its first Stanczak show in 2014 and has a second slated for May.

Cincinnati has had something to do with this resurgence — and Stanczak, in turn, has had something to do with the city’s improved fortunes. In 2007, he created what his wife, sculptor Barbara Stanczak, considers a mural (others call it it a sculpture) along the north side of the Fifth Third Bank’s Fountain Square above-level parking garage. Occupying an entire block of Sixth Street, from Walnut to Vine streets, his “Additional” is among the city’s very finest public artworks of any type. Fifth Third commissioned it; gallerist Carl Solway suggested Stanczak to architect Jim Fitzgerald. The final work was fabricated to the artist’s specifications.

“It made a difference to downtown, didn’t it?” says Barbara, via telephone from the Stanczak home in Seven Hills, Ohio, near Cleveland. “It brought some life and cheer.”

It consists of 522 hollow aluminum bars in bright, rich colors. There are 325 vertical strips, each painted a similar one of three colors on its sides, so depending which way you’re walking or facing, and which sides of the bars you’re seeing, they all look green or purple — or you see a mix. That is a master lesson in manipulation of color combinations. (The effect is interrupted by a large decorative element above a passageway door.)

But giving even greater illusory depth, there are also 200 bars of different colors set at a slant to, and intersecting with, the vertical ones. The effect is to make you think they are swaying with the wind. Plenty of people, myself included, have at one time thought “Additional” is a mobile or kinetic piece, with those slanted bars moving in the wind so fast you never could see it.

CityBeat contributor Jane Durrell talked to Stanczak in August 2007 when he came to town for the dedication of his “block-long blockbuster,” as she called it, as well as for a small show at the Contemporary Arts Center that contained several of the working models. “(I’ve) always wanted to work in three dimensions,” he told Durrell.

Stanczak, who also has some major paintings and prints in Cincinnati collections, led an extraordinary life, according to published information. Born in Poland in 1928, he was sent to a Siberian labor camp after the Russians (along with the Germans) invaded to start World War II. There he lost the use of his right hand. He escaped in 1942, made his way to exiled Polish Army soldiers in Persia and left them for a Polish refugee camp in Africa, where he learned to write and paint with his left hand. After the war, he came Cleveland, got his master’s degree in art from Yale University, studying with Josef Albers, and became a U.S. citizen.

He taught at the Art Academy of Cincinnati from 1957-64, meeting his future wife here when she became an Academy student. She had come to Cincinnati from Germany to help her elderly grandfather, an ecclesiastical painter, with his work.

That local history helped Stanczak decide to undertake the challenging “Additional.”

“We both invested a lot of love and work in Cincinnati, and I thought this was a good project for Julian to be visible,” Barbara says.And so he will be in Cincinnati — always.

Associated Artist

• Julian Stanczak

Associated News

• August 5, 2019
  ‘Optical Art’ to be shown at Fort Wayne Museum of Art
  Wane.com
  August 5, 2019
  Dirk Rowley
  


• April 8, 2019
  JULIAN STANCZAK
  The Lobby Gallery, 499 Park Avenue, New York
  On view through September 2019
  Reception: Tuesday, April 9, 5-7 pm
  
  


• March 26, 2019
  Rhythm, Rhythm, Everywhere
  Toledo City Paper, 03/26/2019
  Thena Cocoves
  
  


• July 28, 2018
  Unique art 'treasure hunt' spans dozens of Ohio venues
  The Blade, 07/28/2018
  Roberta Gedert
  
  


• July 12, 2018
  Cleveland Hopes to Become the Next Venice
  The Wall Street Journal, 07/12/2018
  Kelly Crow
  
  


• February 17, 2018
  Julian Stanczak
  Visual Art Source, 02/17/2018
  Amanda Malloy
  
  


• February 9, 2018
  Julian Stanczak at David Richard Gallery
  Santa Fe New Mexican
  Pasatiempo, 02/09/2018
  Michael Abatemarco
  
  


• February 8, 2018
  Love is in the Art
  Santa Fe Arts Journal, 02/08/2018
  Emily Van Cleve
  
  


• January 31, 2018
  Press Release - Julian Stanczak "Dynamic Fields"


• July 22, 2017
  FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art


• April 19, 2017
  Julian Stanczak’s Contribution to Cincinnati Art
  City Beat, 04/19/2017
  Steven Rosen
  
  


• April 11, 2017
  Julian Stanczak, Abstract Painter, Dies at 88
  New York Times, 04/11/2017
  Roberta Smith
  
  


• March 31, 2017
  Julian Stanczak on the Power of Red
  ArtInfo, 03/31/2017
  
  


• March 28, 2017
  Op Art Loses One of Its Leading Figures With Death of Julian Stanczak
  ArtNet News, 03/29/2017
  Perwana Nazif
  
  


• March 28, 2017
  Julian Stanczak, Central Figure of Op Art Movement, Dies at 88
  ArtNet News, 03/28/2017
  Alex Greenberger
  
  


• March 28, 2017
  Julian Stanczak (1928–2017)
  Artforum, 03/28/2017
  
  


• March 27, 2017
  Julian Stanczak, globally renowned Op artist based in Cleveland, has died at age 88
  Cleveland.com, 03/25/2017
  Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer
  
  


• December 16, 2015
  Julian Stanczak Op Art paintings smash local price ceiling and rocket nationally
  Cleveland.com, 12/16/2015
  Steven Litt
  
  


• January 29, 2015
  Color Color' evokes harmony between two disparate mediums
  The New Record, 01/29/2015
  Christina Drobney
  
  


• December 15, 2014
  'Color Color' at the Cincinnati Art Museum showcases digital prints and poetry
  ArtDaily.org, 12/15/2014
  
  


• March 3, 2014
  Press Release - Julian Stanczak "Lineal Pathways"


• February 23, 2014
  1969 Cleveland Arts Prize for Visual Arts
  


• April 30, 2013
  JULIAN STANCZAK
  COLOR WONDER
  Cleveland Magazine, May 2013
  
  


• April 8, 2013
  AKRON ART MUSEUM
  Line Color Illusion: 40 Years of Julian Stanczak
  Apr 13, 2013 - Nov 3, 2013
  


• October 16, 2012
  THE MARKET'S HOTTEST ARTISTS
  Bloomberg.com, 10/16/2012
  Ben Steverman
  
  


• May 1, 2012
  An Interview with Artist Julian Stanczak
  GeoForm, May 2012
  Julie Karabenick
  
  


• May 1, 2012
  An Interview with Artist Julian Stanczak
  GeoForm, May 2012
  Julie Karabenick
  
  


• December 13, 2011
  JULIAN STANCZAK: GREAT COLORIST OF THE 20TH CENTURY
  Cleveland Institute of Art, 12/13/2011
  
  


• November 6, 2011
  Cleveland Institute of Art touts its own history in shows on Robert Mangold, Julian Stanczak and Ed Mieczkowski
  Cleveland.com, 11/06/2011
  Steven Litt
  
  


• September 21, 2011
  CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART OPTICAL ART EXHIBIT A TEST FOR THE EYES
  WEWS, 09/21/2011
  
  


• August 23, 2011
  Press Release - Julian Stanczak "Tactile See Through"


• November 1, 2010
  The New Criterion review of "Julian Stanczak: Color - Grid"
  Gallery Chronicle, November 2010
  James Panero