Alfred Lenica, Still Life with Oranges

oil, cardboard, dimensions 27 x 30 cm, signed and dated p. g. "Lenica 35" or "38"

Alfred Lenica (1899-1977) was connected with Poznań not only by his studies undertaken in 1922 at the Faculty of Law and Economics of the University of Poznań. In 1923 he entered the local Conservatory of Music, operating under the aegis of the
under the aegis of the Grand Theater, where he studied in the class of stringed instruments. In 1925, he began studying at the Private Institute of Fine Arts under Adam Hannytkiewicz. It was there that he met his future wife, Janina Kubowicz, daughter of painter Piotr Kubowicz. Lenica abandoned music and theater work in favor of painting, which became his main passion until he was evicted from Poznan in 1940. He created theater decorations, portraits and popular compositions in the style of Aksentowicz's paintings. The artist's early works show his creative evolution - from the correct still lifes and compositions of the pre-war period to the paintings of the early 1950s, which foreshadowed his later groundbreaking works. His work from this period was far from the emerging social realism and referred to modern European painting.