Ladislas Kijno (1921-2012) - Composition

Ladislas Kijno (born June 27, 1921 in Warsaw and died November 27, 2012 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye) is a French painter. He settled in 1925 in Nœux-les-Mines (Pas-de-Calais). Since the 1980s he has lived in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, where he died thirty years later.

He is a major figure of the movement of informal painting.

After a childhood in a modest milieu, Ladislas Kijno studied philosophy, notably with Jean Grenier, then attended Germaine Richier’s studio in the post-World War II period. Based in the Île-de-France region since the late 1950s, he has, over the decades, multiplied spray-painting works and established himself as one of the masters of the technique known as crumpling (frottage).

His meeting with Louis Aragon and Francis Ponge in 1943 also led him to work extensively in collaboration with poets. Countless tributes inhabit his creations: Nicolas de Staël, Nelson Mandela, Galileo, then Gagarin; but also the struggles on the side of Algerian or Vietnamese peoples, but also Tahiti, China, and Easter Island.

Kijno participated in the Venice Biennale in 1980. In the 1990s, he worked on the rose of the portal of Notre-Dame de la Treille in Lille. It was completed nine years later…

In 1991, a issue of the art magazine L’Amateur d’art partially devoted to him, with in particular an interview with Jean-Pierre Thiollet, titled: “Ladislas Kijno: I am a monk of Art!”.

Centre d'art sacré contemporain de Lille
In 1996, Kijno suggested to Monsignor Vilnet, bishop of Lille, the idea of dedicating this “modern” part of the crypt to a space for exhibiting contemporary works on the theme of the Passion of Christ. Seven years later, the Centre d'art sacré contemporain was established, with support from the regional council and the association for the Renovation of the Treille site, which originated the current façade, hosting about fifty works from the Delaine collection.

Inaugurated on December 7, 2003, the day after the official launch of Lille 2004, European Capital of Culture, and within the celebration – anniversary – of the 90th anniversary of the Diocese of Lille, it hosted a number of prominent figures of contemporary artistic creation: Georg Baselitz, Lucio Fontana, Robert Combas, Kijno, and Andy Warhol.

Works in public collections:

Donation Ladislas Kijno, Nœux-les-Mines;
Community of communes of Nœux and surroundings;
Musée national d'art moderne (Beaubourg);
Musée National moderne de la ville de Paris;
Musée Picasso in Antibes;
Musée Paul Valéry, Sète;
Museums of fine arts of Lille, Le Havre, Dunkerque and Marseille;
Fondation Maeght;
Museums of fine arts of Algiers, Dresden, Santiago in Chile, Beijing, Caserta and Tahiti;
Musée Pierre-Noël de Saint-Dié-des-Vosges;
Fundació Peter Stämpfli/Art Contemporain in Sitges, Catalonia.