Krystyna Łada

Krystyna Łada first studied at the Free School of Painting under Jerzy Fedkowicz (1891-1959). In 1928, she transferred to Władysław Jarocki at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków and in the following year to Felicjan Kowarski at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. Both Jarocki and Kowarski had previously participated in the Olympic Art Competitions.

After graduation, Łada joined the group of artists “Pryzmat” (“Prism”). In 1936, she married painter Juliusz Studnicki and went with him to Paris. After their return to Poland, they both taught drawing in Wiśniowiec (now Vyshnivets, UKR). During the occupation in World War II, she worked in an artists’ café in Kraków.

After the war, Łada was a co-founder of the State College of Fine Arts in Sopot (since 1996 Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk), where she later headed the studio of painting. In 1954, she was awarded the Golden Cross of Merit and was appointed professor one year later. From 1969, she also taught at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. She moved there in 1970 and remained until her retirement in 1978.

Łada participated in numerous exhibitions in Poland and abroad. In addition to paintings and drawings, she also created murals. Thus, she was involved in painting the polychrome facades of reconstructed tenement houses in Gdansk, as well as in the Old Town of Warsaw. She painted her pictures in the spirit of colorism, especially landscapes, figurative scenes in the landscape and portraits. Her landscapes, however, were always created in the studio. Later Łada turned to abstraction.

The painting Regatta, jointly produced by Krystyna Łada and Juliusz Studnicki, received an award in the Polish pre-Olympic competition. Painted in oil on canvas, the 89.8 x 127.5 cm size painting is in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw.