Anna Staritsky (French-Ukrainian, 1908-1981)
Biography
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.
Available works
Please see below the selection of available original artworks by Anna Staritsky.
POA
Oil on canvas
82x130 cm
Signed lower right
Provenance:
Stichting Veranneman Fondation, Kruishoutem, Belgium
Private collection
In 'Distant Unravelling', 1960s, Anna Staritsky combines in fluid motion tones of blue, green, and brown, resembling grass-covered cliffs rising above the sea. In fact, many of Staritsky's abstract works are landscapes intended to be discovered.
Oil on canvas
89x130 cm
Signed lower right
Provenance:
Private collection
Mixed media on paper
50x64 cm
Signed lower left
Provenance:
Private collection
Collage, paper, oil, and tempera
59x37 cm
Framed: 93x73 cm
Signed lower right
Provenance:
Private collection
Anna Staritsky's Ukrainian cultural heritage plays a big role in the themes presented in her works, specifically paganism, mysticism and religious rituals. The title of this work 'Slavic Games', suggests this seemingly abstract collage might reveal a traditional game or the memory of it, perhaps once played by Staritsky.
Oil on canvas
92x73 cm
Signed lower right, further signed verso
Provenance:
Galerie Cavalero, Cannes
Collage, paper, tempera, foliage
54.5x37 cm
Framed: 84x63 cm
Signed bottom centre
Provenance:
Private collection
This collage depicts a mystical ritual, a theme drawn by Anna Staritsky from Ukrainian folklore and present in many of her late works. Four characters constructed from crinkled and folded torn paper, stand on a disk spinning through the painted abyss. The addition of dried foliage brings a further material and religious dimension to the work, meditating on questions of nature worship and paganism.
Paper, collage, oil, and tempera
70x47 cm
Framed: 93x69 cm
Signed lower right, further signed on verso
Provenance:
Private collection
Anna Staritsky's experiments with collages in the late 1960s and 70s revolve around her memories of Ukraine and her strong spiritual connection to Ukrainian culture. Roughly defined characters occupy the space of this collage, reduced to near attraction: a pair of eyes on a blank face, a profile with an open mouth, a raised fist, a hand holding a note.