SwissArtGallery · Documented identity
Born in Munich in 1951, Stefan Szczesny’s career traces a movement from abstract painting towards figuration, which he associates with an art «in search of a connection with life». During his studies, he worked as an archaeological draughtsman at the university and as an art critic for Munich’s Abendzeitung. Initially drawn to abstraction under the influence of Günther Fruhtrunk, he gradually returned to figuration after a stay in Paris in 1975–1976, made possible by a DAAD scholarship. His stay at the Villa Romana in Florence, where he studied the Italian Renaissance, accompanied this development.
Having settled in Cologne in 1981, he organised the exhibition Rundschau Deutschland with the artist Troels Wörsel. It was first shown in Munich and then in Cologne as part of Westkunst. Awarded the Rome Prize of the Preußische Akademie der Künste, he stayed at the Villa Massimo in 1982 and 1983, where he devoted himself to Roman antiquity. This period gave rise to a series of «Roman canvases» and five large paintings inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, exhibited at the Glyptothek in Munich in 1984. From 1984 to 1988, he edited the journal Malerei. Painting. Peinture; in 1988, the Landesmuseum in Bonn presented the first retrospective of his work.
In 1996, he founded Szczesny Factory, a commercial company that includes his own publishing house. At the request of the WWF, he subsequently created The Living Planet for Expo 2000 in Hanover: twelve large-format ceramic wall panels surround the organisation’s pavilion. From 2001, he lived with his family in Saint-Tropez. In 2014, his work was presented in a retrospective at the Palais des papes in Avignon; there, he dedicated L’Arbre de la vie, a 6.5-metre-high sculpture in polished steel. Later presentations attest to the diversity of the media he used: in Les Baux-de-Provence in 2019, metal cut-outs, blown glass, ceramics, portraits on canvas and paintings on photographs were installed around the town. In 2021, twelve colourful sculptures were exhibited in the grounds of the Château de la Moutte.
This profile brings together identity references for Stefan Szczesny and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.
Germann
References include catalogue entries and available results; they do not all represent completed sales. Attributed works and special lots are excluded from the priced results.
Acrylic on canvas
Insel der Frauen I, 1982
Acryl auf Leinwand.
Catalogue period : 2012-11-26
Published result : 5500 CHF
Hammer price, excluding fees
Estimate : CHF 1500–2500
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Mixed media on paper
Ohne Titel, 1981
Mischtechnik auf Papier.
Date to be documented
Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed
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Gouache.
Date to be documented
Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed
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Oil on canvas
Arabischer Traum - aus Tausend und einer Nacht, 1981
Öl auf Leinwand.
Date to be documented
Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed
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Gouache.
Date to be documented
Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed
View the lot at the auction house ↗SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
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