Tadeusz Jaroszynski English

Tadeusz Jaroszyński (1933-2014) was born on July 13th in the old village of Makarska, on the Croatian Adriatic coast, in the former Yugoslavia. His father, Karol, was Polish and his mother, Maïre, Finnish. The couple owned and ran a hotel by the sea.

While Tadeusz’s family continued to live in Makarska until the outbreak of World War II, the children enjoyed holidays with grandparents in Finland. This is where he and his brother, Pajo were when it became apparent that Helsinki was about to be bombed by the Russians.

With their father fighting on the front-line Maïre, who was still in Croatia, started a dash across Europe to pick up her children and get them to safety. This epic journey, first recorded in her diary, became a book ‘Une Finlandaise Dans La Tourmente’ which told the story of her journey from Makarska to Helsinki between September and December 1939. It was published in 1940 by Denoël.

After traveling throughout Europe and the Middle East including stints in Palestine and Egypt, Maïre and her two sons boarded the “SS Nieuw Amsterdam” for Durban, South Africa, in 1941.

There followed a 2000 kilometre train ride which took Maïre, Pajo and Tadeusz to Masabuka, in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), where they finally settled, while Karol continued fighting with the Polish forces in Tobruk (Libya) and in Monte Cassino (Italy). After the war, Karol joined his family in Africa and managed an aspestos mine there. Sitting on the steps of the office building, his two tamed cheetahs kept a watchful eye on the operations.

Later Tadeusz was put in a boarding school in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe), and received his first experience of formal education and strict discipline ! However, life had its compensations with regular expeditions into the bush, a land of endless adventure.

Traumatised by the bombings he witnessed as a child in Helsinki, Tadeusz suffered from a tremble in his hands throughout his life. It only stopped while he was drawing or painting.

Tadeusz began his artistic studies in Helsinki in 1953. 

Karin and Tadeusz met during their years at the Academy and married in 1954. Their had their two first sons, Dino and Jan while they were both still students.

The family subsequently settled down in South Africa in 1957, where their daughter, Karolina and later their son, Henryk were born.

They would eventually be surrounded by the many animals that inspired their art: chickens, monkeys, parrots and horses.

While Karin painted and taught sculpture, Tadeusz worked for Olivetti. Those early years were difficult, and Karin would sometimes sit in Ansteys Department Store, in Johannesburg drawing portraits of whoever came by to supplement the family’s income.

However, in 1967 Tadeusz’s painting talent was recognised when he received the Transvaal Academy Award. This bolstered his confidence and allowed him to devote himself to painting full time from 1972.

In the early ‘70s Karin and Tadeusz developed an interest in lithographs while visiting Finland and published a work entitled “The Helsinki Series” in Johannesburg between 1975–1977.

This work got them noticed on the European exhibition scene and led to their work being shown every year at the prestigious art fair in Basel, Switzerland.

Their paintings were also regularly shown at the Graphic Biennale and International Art Fair, in New York, Paris (FIAC and MIGAME), London, Strasbourg (ST’ART ), Cologne, Bologna and further afield.

In 1977 the couple left South Africa for Sweden, where they spent a year before settling in France.

In 1978, Tadeusz organised the first of his numerous individual exhibitions at the Romanet Gallery in Paris, where the monograph ‘Jaroszyński’ by Pierre Mazars (famous art critic and writer for the Figaro newspaper) was also displayed.

In 1984 Karin and Tadeusz returned to South Africa where they lived and painted near Tzaneen in the north of the country.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the couple travelled extensively in Europe as well as visiting Hong Kong, China, the Philippines and Australia. In 1997, the couple settled permanently to France, their adopted homeland and lived in Villeloin Coulangé, in the Touraine, near their daughter Karolina.

Karin died in 2014, and Tadeusz in 2020

EXHIBITIONS

1967: Transvaal Academy, Johannesburg, South Africa (First prize)

Adler Fieldings Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa

Art South Africa Today, Durban, South Africa (Prize obtained)

1969 Gallery 101, Johannesburg *

1971 Gallery 101, Johannesburg

Lidchi Gallery, Johannesburg *

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

1973 South African Association of Arts, Johannesburg

1974 Lidchi Gallery, Johannesburg *

Gallery Artek, Helsinki, Finland °

Art 5’74, Bâle, Switzerland

3rd International Biennial of Graphic Arts, Frenchen, Germany (Prize obtained)

1st International Biennial of Graphic Arts, Segovia, Spain

Gallery International, Cape Town, South Africa °

1975 Gallery 21, Johannesburg °

Art 6’75, Bâle, Switzerland

11th International Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Yougoslavia

Gallery International, Cape Town, South Africa °

International Art Fair, Cologne, Germany

1976 Gertrude Posel Gallery, University of the Witwaterstrand, Johannesburg °

Gallery International, Cape Town °

Arts Association, Pretoria, South Africa °

Galerie Peithner-Lichtenfels, Vienna, Austria

Gallery Grafikhuset, Stockholm, Sweden

Gallery Christel, Helsinki, Finland

Gallery 21, Johannesburg *

Feria ’76, Bologne, Italy

Art 7’76, Bâle, Switzerland

4th International Biennial of Graphic Arts, Frenchen, Allemagne

3rd International Biennial of Graphic Arts, Frederickstad, Norway

1977 Biennale of Monte-Carlo

1978 Galerie Romanet, Paris, France

Art 9’78, Bâle, Switzerland

1979 Galerie Romanet, Paris, France *

Art 10’79, Bâle, Switzerland

1980 Galerie Romanet, Paris, France

Art 11’80, Bâle, Switzerland

Art Expo MIGAME, Paris

1981 Galerie Romanet, Paris, France

Art 12’81, Bâle, Switzerland

Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa *

1982 Galerie Romanet, Paris, France

New York Art Fair, USA

1983 Galerie Romanet, Paris, France

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg *

1984 Various group exhibitions

1990 Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg *

1994 Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg

1996 Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg *

Galerie Hughes de Payns, Troyes, France *

Galerie 32, Strasbourg, France *

1997 St’Art, Strasboug Art Fair, France

1998 Crédit Agricole, Espace Chateauneuf, Tours, France

*: solo exhibitions

°: exhibitions with Karin Jaroszynska

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa (série de gravures)

Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa

Pretoria Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

Sandton Municipal Art Gallery, Sandton, South Africa

Pietersburg Art Gallery, Pietersburg, South Africa

Potchefstroom Art Gallery, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg, South Africa

Académie des Beaux Arts, Helsinki, Finlande

The Art 21 Investment Fund, Johannesburg, South Africa

Schlensinger Collection, Londres, Royaume Uni

Comité de Biennale de Frenchen, Allemagne

PELMAMA Permanent Art Collection

Plusieurs collections privées: Mary Slack, Oppenheimer…

PUBLICATIONS

Editions 21, London and Johannesbourg

1974: Hand lithography, engravings (Helsinki Series)

1976: Engravings (Johannesburg series)

MONOGRAPHS AND STUDIES

“Jaroszynski” Pierre Mazars – Editions Romanet, Paris (1979) (richly illustrated)

Exhibition catalog at the Gertrude Posel Gallery, University of the Witwatersrand – Kwiecien / May 1976

“Art & Artists of South Africa” (Berman) (Balkema), 1983 – ISBN 0-86961-144-5

“The Dictionary of South African Painters and Sculptors including Namibia” (Ogilvie / Graff) (Everard Read), 1988 – ISBN 0 620 12663 9 – pp. 314 and 316

“Works at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein”, Youtube