Houwalt-Kostecka, Barbera

Barbara Houwalt-Kostecka born. 1935 - 2005 Barbara Houwalt-Kostecka (born December 3, 1935 in Vilnius, lives in Poznan, Poland) was raised in an artistic family, the daughter of painter Barbara Houwaltowa and painter Ildefons Houwalt, artists associated with the Vilnius School before World War II, settled in Poznan after the war. In 1954-60 she studied at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk under Professors St. Borysowski and St. Teisseyre, graduating in the studio of Piotr Potworowski. She paints and writes poetry, expressing herself in both areas at the same time. Her paintings are studies of color, which is the basis for the existence of the composition. She creates painting cycles called "Orthodox Spas", "Monastery Scenes", "Chamber of Bells". The world of these works is built with clear elements, showing a disturbing vision from the borderline of reality and dream. Hieratically situated, abstracted figures emphasize architectural forms reminiscent of the interiors of gothic cathedrals, creating tension and dynamics, while skillfully used rays of light bring them out of the darkness. The artist has been strongly influenced by the poetry of Osip Mandelstam, a Russian poet of Jewish origin, who died in a Stalinist labor camp in 1938. They are not an illustration to a particular work but a visual concretization and painterly interpretation of the works by the outstanding poet.