Mary Stanisia
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Sister Maria Stanisia (born Monica Kurkowski May 4, 1878 - January 28, 1967) was an American Catholic artist and painter.[1]
She was a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Born of a Polish family, Kurkowski, in Chicago, Illinois, where she first began to paint at the age of eight. Noted Polish painter Professor Thaddeus Zukotynski taught her the art of religious painting, landscape painting, and sculpture. After his death, she continued her studies at the Chicago Art Institute.
In 1920 Sister Stanisia, a teacher at the Academy of Our Lady, was commissioned to restore some of Zukotynski's precious frescoes, restoring his works at the Basilica of St. Hyacinth, and the churches of St. Stanislaus Kostka and Holy Cross in Chicago, which are built in the so-called Polish Cathedral style.
Sister Stanisia was in her lifetime perhaps the most widely known female painter throughout the Catholic World in both the United States and Europe. Some of her paintings are: Portrait of Bishop John F. Noll, of Fort Wayne diocese, Indiana; St. Theresa; Sacred Heart of Jesus. She was also the founder of the Fine Arts Guide in Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1932 she was awarded a silver medal at the International Fair, Warsaw, Poland. The American Art Society commissioned her to paint a portrait of Pope Pius XI at Holy Family Academy, Chicago, Illinois. In 1934 she also painted a portrait of Edward Kelly, mayor of Chicago, and in 1933 of Governor Horner of Illinois. She died in Elm Grove, Wisconsin.
[edit] See also
- Jozef Mazur
- Polish Americans
- Polish Roman Catholic Union of America
- Polish Cathedral style
- Roman Catholicism in Poland
- Tadeusz Żukotyński
