Anna Staritsky (French-Ukrainian, 1908-1981)

Anna Staritsky was a Ukrainian painter and graphic artist working in Belgium and France. From a young age, she showed a keen interest in drawing, poetry and music. Before settling in Brussels in 1932, Anna Staritsky lived briefly in France, then Prague, and studied at the Sofia Art Academy in Bulgaria.

Between 1933 and 1940 Staritsky worked as a graphic artist at advertising firms and printing houses. She continued to pursue her artistic career and painted many portraits. Anna Staritsky's work was showcased as part of the Russian Art Salon at the Brussels Galerie Tioson d'Or from 1943 to 1944.

After the war Staritsky and her husband, Guillaume Hoorickx settled in Nice and remained there until 1952 when they moved to Paris. Anna Staritsky had many friends in the artistic and literary circles of the Parisian avant-garde. She combined her love for painting and poetry in her abstract works from the 1950s. She painted large-scale abstract canvases in vibrant colours and often Russian and French texts appear in these works. Another large part of Anna Staritsky's oeuvre consists of relief collages and abstract landscapes made with twisted and wrinkled paper, wood, stones and various other found materials and objects. The artist’s Ukrainian cultural heritage plays a big role in the themes presented in Staritsky’s works, specifically paganism, mysticism and religious rituals.