Studio of Stanislas Wojcieszyński, known as Wostan (1915–1989)
STANILAS WOJCIESZYNSKI (KNOWN AS WOSTAN) STUDIO (1915–1989)
HÔTEL DROUOT - ROOM 10
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21—2:00 P.M.
Public Exhibition:
Tuesday, October 20, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
On the morning of the auction, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Phone number during the exhibition and auction: +33 (0)1 48 00 20 10
Stanislas Wojcieszynski, known as Wostan (Kozmin, Poland, 1915 – Beynes, 1989)
A Franco-Polish artist, Stanislas Wojcieszynski adopted the name Wostan to develop a unique body of work at the intersection of painting, sculpture, printmaking, and poetry. Trained beginning in 1935 at the Institute of Fine Arts in Poznań, he created his first series of woodcuts inspired by Michelangelo’s sonnets before the war.
Drafted in 1939 and later taken prisoner, Wostan spent part of the war in various camps in Austria, where he learned French and developed a passion for literature. Upon his release in 1945, he settled in Paris and joined the Artistic Center of the Polish School. He then pursued a resolutely experimental practice, working successively in printmaking, painting, collage, sculpture, ceramics, and bas-reliefs.
In 1949, his sculpture *Cain* won an award at the first Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. After settling in Beynes in 1952, he converted a barn into a studio and developed, in particular, his remarkable cut-and-hammered copper works. His first solo exhibition was organized in 1953 by the Colette Allendy Gallery, after which the Lara Vincy Gallery provided long-term support for his work beginning in 1957. His works were also exhibited in Montreal and at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, while the Musée de Grenoble dedicated a retrospective to him in 1965.
Filled with organic, mineral, and sometimes anthropomorphic forms, Wostan’s work reflects a deeply poetic imagination, permeated by erotic and fantastical tensions. Material plays an essential role: engraved wood, molded clay, hammered metal, and painted surfaces become the mediums for a personal language situated at the boundaries of figuration and abstraction.
Today, Wostan is notably represented in the collections of the Centre Pompidou with the 1952 sculpture *Grand-Duc* and in those of the Musée de Grenoble with *L’Émotion retenue*, a piece of cut and hammered copper created in 1964. His career reflects the richness of an independent and unclassifiable artist, whose work remains one of the most original expressions of postwar Franco-Polish art.
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