Jan Cybis

Jan Cybis (Fröbel, now Wróblin, 1897 – Warsaw, 1972) was a Polish painter and art teacher, and one of the most prominent members of the Kapists, also known as the Paris Committee, a significant group of Polish painters of the 1930s. His work is marked by a post-impressionist style built on rich, saturated color, shaped by French influence.

He studied at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, to which he moved in 1934. His mentor was the German Expressionist Otto Mueller, and he also trained under Józef Pankiewicz. By the 1930s he had become one of the best-known artists of his generation, and his wife, Hanna Rudzka-Cybisowa, also belonged to the Kapist group.

During the Socialist Realism period in communist Poland he faced difficulties: he was prevented from teaching for ideological reasons, although he received official honours in 1949 and 1955. Among his students was Tadeusz Dominik. His memoirs were published in 1980. Since 1973 the Association of Polish Artists and Designers has awarded the annual Jan Cybis Award to visual artists.