Maria Jarema

Maria Jarema (24 November 1908 – 1 November 1958) was a Polish painter, sculptor, scenographer and actress. She was a founder of the interwar leftist avant-garde Kraków Group (Grupa Krakowska). In addition to her own artistic practice, Jarema was a long-time collaborator of the Polish painter and playwright Tadeusz Kantor.

Life and career

Early career (1920s-1930s) She was born on 24 November 1908 in Staryi Sambir (Polish: ) in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (currently Ukraine). In the years 1929–1935, she studied sculpture at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, under supervision of Xawery Dunikowski. In 1932, she co-founded the avant-garde, radical left Kraków Group. Jarema was an outspoken leftist during the interwar period and supported labor movements in Poland and abroad. She also designed a memorial in Kraków for socialists and communist activists killed during the 1934 Paris strikes. She was one of the founders of the avant-garde theatre Cricot (1933–1938) alongside Józef Jarema, Henryk Gotlib and Zbigniew Pronaszko.

Postwar period (1945-1958) Before the outbreak of World War II, Jarema worked primarily as a sculptor but after 1945 she focused on painting. In 2019, Agnieszka Dauksza published a Nike Award-nominated book focusing on the life of Jarema and her artistic legacy.

Personal life She was a sister of painter Józef Jarema and actor Władysław Jarema, the founder of the Groteska Theatre in Kraków. She married novelist and short story writer Kornel Filipowicz.