You are on the official website of MARIA PAPA Rostkowska, sculptor.
B I O G R A P H I E
borned Baranowska
was born in Warsaw, where she studied architecture and fine arts. In 1943, she married Ludwik Rostkowski Jr, a young politician, Vice President of Polish Democratic Youth Organization ("Stronnictwo Demokratyczne"), a leading participant in saving the Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto for which he was awarded the Medal of Rightful. During the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, she joined the Underground and actively participated in combats against the Nazis. After the War she was awarded the Medal of Virtuti Militari by the Polish Army. Her only child, Nicolas Rostkowski, was born in 1945. In 1947, she received a grant from the French Government, later renewed by UNESCO, to study and work in Paris.
From her union/struggle with marble, Maria Papa Rostkowska creates blooming flowers, moulds warriors, conjures up promises of happiness. Her sculptures are made to be stroked. Our fingers slide and linger on their curves and she invites us to share an universe where male and female poles are confronted and combined, call and echo each other. Duality of figures sometimes sturdily built, sometimes vibrating from a powerful thrust, gracious or monumental, abstract or representational. From battles (warriors) to love (embrace, motherhood), from encounters between cultures (Quetzatcoatl conquered by the vessels of Colombus) to the fascination for the sheer beauty of the horse’s spirit, the bird’s flight or the gliding boat, it is a dream of happiness obviously sensual and secretly spiritual incarnate in marble. A wide variety of marbles, from jet-black or white-as-flesh marbles from Carrara to the rosy or orangey shades of the Syrian or Portuguese marbles - suggestive of far-away harmonies- to the golden bronze pieces moulded from the marble sculptures direct carving (en taille directe).
E X H B I T I O N S, É V È N T S & A C T U A L I T I É S
É V È N T 2 0 1 4 : Inauguration of the sculptureGaia donated to the city Pietrasanta by the family Rostkowski.
Domenico Lombardi, Mayor of Pietrasanta and Nicolas Rostkowski during the installation of the sculpture "Gaia" Maria Papa Rostkowska on Place Gabriele d'Annunzio
Pietrasanta October 25, 2014.
É V È N T 2 0 1 4 : Exhibition Maria Papa Rostkowska National Museum of Poland. In this vidéo, isit of the Maria Papa Rostkowska exhibition at the National Museum of Poland by Edith-Laure Rostkowski.
Nicolas Rostkowski and Prince Michel Troiekouroff-Lyszczynski during the "finishing"
Exposure Maria Papa Rostkowska in Warsaw September 20, 2014 (photo Joelle Rostkowski) Joëlle Rostkowski and Prince Michel Troiekouroff-Lyszczynski during the "finishing"
Exposure Maria Papa Rostkowska in Warsaw September 20, 2015
É V È N T 2 0 1 4 :"Venus bionda" from Pietrasanta for the National Museum of Poland.
É V È N T 2 0 1 4 : "The Warrior" ("Rycerz") from Pietrasanta for the National Museum of Poland and then to the President of the Polish Republic.
É V È N T 2 0 1 4 : The national Museum of Poland organized a retrospective of the work of Maria Papa Rostkowska June 15 to September 24, 2014.
-Marina di Pietrasanta 25-10-2014_6.jpg)
