We met in the centre of Paris to speak with Nicolas and Joëlle Rostkowski about the extraordinary life of Maria Papa Rostkowska — a woman marked by the trauma and courage of the Second World War, a participant in the Warsaw Uprising, and an artist who found her sculptural voice between Poland, France, and Italy.
On the occasion of the family’s donation of her sculpture Mother and Child to the Polish Embassy in Paris, Nicolas recalls memories of his mother’s atelier in Pietrasanta, where many of her sculptures were born, bringing back rare and personal stories that are rarely told. The conversation also took place at a time of growing international interest in Polish artists in France, with museum exhibitions devoted to figures such as Magdalena Abakanowicz at the Musée Bourdelle and Alina Szapocznikow at the Musée de Grenoble. We also discussed The Smile, which recently achieved a record price of 40,000 euros at the charity auction for the Warsaw Museum Foundation, as well as the upcoming installation of The Warrior of the Desert, which will be presented this spring at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Troyes — one of France’s leading museums of modern art.
Sylwia Krasoń: The donation of La Mère et l’Enfant to the Polish Embassy in Paris can be seen not only as a family gesture but as a way of situating Maria Papa Rostkowska’s work within a broader cultural memory and the international presence of Polish art. How do you understand the significance of this decision — personally and publicly — and how was the sculpture received in a diplomatic context?
Nicolas and Joëlle Rostkowski: The initiative of placing a work of Maria Papa Rostkowska at the Polish Embassy in Paris came as a result of the initiative by the First Lady of the Embassy, Mrs Anna Rosciszewska. It was a pioneering decision. As we understand it, it would be the first time that the Embassy would host the works of a contemporary artist.
We were offered the possibility of complementing our donation of the emblematic sculpture Mother and Child in shiny bronze by the deposit of five more works. Hence, the reception areas of the Embassy are now decorated with six works by Maria Papa Rostkowska. Clearly, in our opinion, the Polish authorities have decided to support Polish art, especially that of the Polish artists who lived and worked in France. Moreover, we presume the decision has been taken because the Embassy team felt that the sculptures would fit within the 18th-century decorum of the historic Hôtel de Monaco, where the Embassy is located.
Over 130 people have attended the opening with warm speeches by the Ambassador and Małgorzata Grabczewska, Director of the Polish Institute in Paris. Two days later, Mrs Marta Cienkowska, Polish Minister of Culture, visited the Embassy and saw the sculptures. We had the honour of giving her a personal presentation of the works and informing her of future projects regarding the art of Maria Papa Rostkowska in Poland and France. The reception of the works, in this prestigious diplomatic context, was excellent. For us, it was a very emotional event as we felt it would probably have been one of the happiest days in Maria’s life!
SK: Mother and Child carries a strong emotional resonance. How do you read this work today in relation to who Maria was as a mother and as a person in everyday life, beyond the studio?
NR & JR: Maria was a strong woman. She lived through the traumas of the Second World War: saving the Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto with her first husband, Ludwik Rostkowski Jr, in an atmosphere of constant fear, then participating in the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. She would spend days in the canals, as a liaison officer, carrying arms between various districts of Warsaw. She was even decorated with one of the highest Polish military rewards – Virtuti Militarii Silver Cross for her actions and courage. After the war came the Stalinist repression of the Polish elites that cost the life of Ludwik Rostkowski Jr. So, as a mother, she actually assumed the role of both father and mother. Sometimes she was as severe as men can be, sometimes sweet and feminine.
In her art, she was deeply inspired by the cycles of life and in search of inner peace, a sense of serenity. Mother and Child belongs to the “cycle of life” series, characterised by harmonious proportions. The works illustrate highlights in human life: the kiss, followed by the bride and the fusion of love, the child in the womb, and the mother and child iconic figure. It conveys a universal feeling of recognition, as it was inspired by figures of women walking with a child in their arms, the figures conveying a sense of movement and grace. The child’s face, emerging from the stone, with its rounded facial features, is very moving for us, because it is actually inspired by Edilou’s face, our daughter.
My mother had been through the war and hated it. Her aim was to create works that would bring viewers and collectors a sense of peace, a feeling of joy. Most sculptures capture a moment of bliss that freezes time eternally.
My mother had been through the war and hated it. Her aim was to create works that would bring viewers and collectors a sense of peace, a feeling of joy. Most sculptures capture a moment of bliss that freezes time eternally.
SK: At a recent charity auction organised by the Warsaw Museum Foundation at DESA Unicum, a work by Maria Papa Rostkowska achieved a record price of PLN 150,000 (around 40,000 EUR). Do you see this as a sign of growing market recognition, or as part of a broader shift in how her work — and artists of her generation — are being re-evaluated?
NR & JR: We are delighted that the sculpture The Smile has been sold for such a good price. Almost 40 000 euros! The proceeds will go to the Warsaw Museum to finance the purchases of young artists’ art. Maria would be very pleased as she was teaching art in the Art Academies of Sopot at the beginning of the 1950s and thereafter in Warsaw, before emigrating to France in 1957. She always encouraged young artists.
Regarding her current recognition, the market is obviously a good indicator. We can only acknowledge the fact that the prices of Maria Rostkowska’s works follow a clear upwards trend, both in auctions and private sales. In addition to the most recent auction for the benefit of the Warsaw Museum, there was also a solo exhibition in Paris, at the beginning of January, at one of the iconic galleries, Galerie Diane de Polignac. The exhibition was a success and a clear recognition of a growing collectors’ interest in her art.
Several works took the path to some fine French and American collections. The Galerie Diane de Polignac will keep following the art of Maria Papa Rostkowska in the future, which is a very positive factor for her international recognition among other masters of the New School of Paris. So, the circle of collectors is and will be growing steadily.
SK: The upcoming project of installation of the sculpture The Warrior of the Desert, this coming spring in France’s one of the leading modern art museums, in Troyes, marks another important moment in sharing her work with new audiences. What will visitors encounter there, and what story are you hoping this installation will tell?
NR & JR: The Musée d’Art Moderne of Troyes is one of the leading art museums in France, hosting one of the most important modern art collections donated in 1976 by Pierre and Denise Levy. The museum attracts large audiences of visitors, both from France and abroad. The work by Maria Papa Rostkowska should find its place in the sculpture garden alongside famous artists such as Soutine, Modigliani, Germaine Richier… Hence, her sculptures will be seen by visitors from around the world.
The Polish honorary consulate has been particularly instrumental in this undertaking, so the event should be seen as a sign of French-Polish friendship in the area of culture. We presume it is in line with the recent Polish-French Treaty of Nancy. We also expect that a full-blown exhibition of Maria Papa Rostkowska will be organised in this museum in the Autumn of 2028.
SK: Looking back, is there a personal memory – perhaps a moment in the studio or a small daily ritual – that best captures her relationship with material, giving us a glimpse of who she was beyond her public image?
NR & JR: When we were visiting her, in Paris or Pietrasanta, she would be sitting on her couch with a few drawings on her lap. She always drew some sketches before engaging in cutting the stone. And she also had a cloth that she used to polish some finished work, rotating it continually to review its lines from every perspective.
She kept talking as if going through some kind of inner monologue, referring to what she had recently been reading: Polish poetry, Greek mythology or Indian philosophy and essays dealing with concerns such as the relationship with Nature, or between human beings and other species. She had a keen interest in the work of Konrad Lorenz, a prominent Austrian ethologist known for his groundbreaking research in animal behaviour. Then she would look at her beloved Pilou, her Persian cat, and stroke him, telling us how wise he was.
SK: In our editorial work at Contemporary Lynx, we often engage with artists whose legacies require careful stewardship. What has been the greatest challenge in caring for Maria Papa Rostkowska’s archive, and what practical advice would you offer others in a similar position?
NR & JR: Caring for the archives of a mother is a very hard task for a son. It always brings back the image of the deceased person. This is very sad… At the time of her departure in 2008, she was living in a small house in Pietrasanta, where all the materials were kept. We were very fortunate because a young Italian historian, Luca Nicoletti, was very interested in her art and life. Basically, he gathered and classified all the materials available.
They were subsequently transferred to the Centro APICE at the Università degli Studi of Milan, where we have set up the “Fondazione Gualtieri di San Lazzaro e Maria Papa”, where they are available for the public. The Fondazione includes hundreds of letters between Maria Papa and her second husband, San Lazzaro and artistic figures of these times, such as Fontana, Miro, Chagall, Hartung, who were their friends.
The Fondazione also comprises our donation of the full collection of the iconic art magazine XXe Siecle, which includes several articles on Maria Papa Rostkowska by such prominent art critics as André Verdet or Giuseppe Marchiori. Whenever new material comes to life, we send it to the Fondazione. Our plan is also to set up a “Catalogue Raisonné” on the internet with the assistance of the Galerie Diane de Polignac.
Regarding advice for other families with the task of taking care of an artist’s legacy, each situation is very specific. Families may have different objectives. Our ambition and strategy is to position Maria Papa Rostkowska as a prominent artist of Polish origin of the second part of the 20th century. Hence, we choose exhibitions in museums, while gradually positioning her works in prominent public and private collections. So we use proper channels for the works to reach prime private collections.
We also encourage scientific publications, such as books or catalogues with articles written by respected art critics or museum curators. It requires a lot of commitment and perseverance. But the results give a lot of satisfaction and joy, like the decoration of the Polish Embassy with her works, or the installation of her monumental sculptures at the French Parliament (Palais Bourbon), the Presidential palace in Warsaw, the Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków, the Royal Palace of Łazienki in Warsaw, and the National Museums in Warsaw and Lublin.
Her works can also be seen in French museums and collections in France, Italy, and the United States – Paris, Dijon, Meudon, Grenoble, Issoudun, Milan, Pietrasanta, Carrara, and Houston. So we guess the strategy is successful. It has probably contributed to an attractive price for The Smile at the Warsaw Museum Foundation auction recently. We rejoice, as we understand it, because the sculpture will live in a prime Kraków collection, not far away from the sculpture The Warrior at the Wawel Castle and another one, the Discovery of the New World in the SAO Investments collection.
SK: As art history continues to be revised and the contributions of women artists reassessed, how do you see Maria Papa Rostkowska’s place within this broader rethinking?
NR & JR: In our opinion, Maria Papa Rostkowska wouldn’t like the categorisation of sculpture by gender. We realise that this is a current trend of thinking among art critics and historians. It’s a useful rehabilitation of women in sculpture, as sculpture was considered for centuries to be men’s domain. However, in the case of Maria Papa Rostkowska, she considered herself equal to male sculptors and worked alongside them without asking for any kind of privilege. She considered herself a sculptor without reference to gender.
Moreover, at Henraux workshops in Pietrasanta, she worked in direct carving, actually executing the artworks with her own hands, while many of the male sculptors came to the studio with models in plaster or clay and left the execution to the “artigiani,” showing up only when the work was done to sign the piece. Maybe this is why there is a special sensual attraction to her sculptures, a desire to stroke them, to feel the haptic resonance of the stone and the strength and sweetness of her hands.
