Adam Styka

Biography of Adam Styka ( 1890-1959 )

A painter of genre scenes, landscapes and orientalist scenes, Adam Styka was born of a family of artists in Kielce, Poland, in 1890.  He started studying with his father, the painter Jan Styka, and his brother, the portraitist Tadé Styka.

In 1908, he moved to Paris and completed his formal education at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts where he studied in the Studio of Fernand Cormon until 1912.

He started exhibiting his work at the Salon des Beaux-Arts in 1911, and in Paris most prestigious galleries : Galerie Georges Petit (1906), Galerie des Champs-Elysées.

In 1914, he exhibited at the Orientalist Salon and presented sixteen paintings which were noticed and admired for their extreme luminosity.

At the end of WW1, he returned to North Africa, mainly to Morocco where, once more, he was struk by the intensity of the light in these regions. As a result of this journey, which was to be followed by regular trips every year, Styka developped an entire genre based upon the depiction of Middle-Eastern and Oriental themes.

Among his works are landscapes and scenes of the Maroccan daily street life, including a great number of Moroccan love scenes :  "Souks in Biskra"; "Meeting of Arabs Chiefs"; "Children riding donkeys by the Nile"; "Playtime in the Serail"; "Lovers"; "The Date".
His exquisite ability of captivating and conveying faithfully to his paintings the vibrating strong colors full of contrast of the hot Sahara Desert, colors harmoniously blended together, earned him the appellation « The Master of Sunlight ».