Alice Halicka (Krakow 1884 – Paris 1975)

Alice Halicka was a Polish Jewish painter, draughtswoman, decorator, costume designer, and illustrator of the School of Paris. She was born in Krakow in 1884 into a wealthy family. She studied painting at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts under Josef Pankiewicz, Leon Wyczolkowski, and Wojciech Weiss.

Alice Halicka arrived in Paris in 1912, after a brief stay in Munich. She attended classes by Paul Sérusier and Maurice Denis at the Académie Ranson. She married the painter Louis Marcoussis in 1913, who introduced her to the Cubist group. The couple counted among their friends writers, poets, and artists such as Apollinaire, Foujita, Kisling, Van Dongen, and Pascin. In 1919, Alice Halicka worked for the Lyon silk manufacturer Bianchini Férier.

In 1921, Halicka traveled to Poland and changed her pictorial style. From 1931, Dr. Barnes and art dealer Gertrude Stein collected her works. Between 1935 and 1937, the painter traveled three times to New York, where she collaborated with fashion magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. From 1938, the painter and her husband took refuge in the Allier region. Halicka returned alone to Paris in 1945, Louis Marcoussis having died in Cusset. She then published her autobiography and wrote a chronicle. From the 1950s, she undertook trips to India, Poland, and Russia. She died in Paris in 1974.

Between 1913 and 1921, she primarily created still lifes and Cubist portraits. Her palette was then mostly tinted with brown and gray colors. From 1921, she reconnected with Polish folklore. She depicted scenes of life in Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter of Krakow. The painter also executed paintings, collages, and padded romances. Subsequently, her practice became quite decorative and lyrical, influenced by the works of Raoul Dufy. During her stay in New York, she created advertisements, sets, ballet costumes, views of New York, and dancers in pastel tones.

Alice Halicka actively participated in exhibitions of her time and was notably among the exhibitors at the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon d'Automne, and the Galerie Weil. She also exhibited in New York at the Brooklyn Museum in 1927. A solo exhibition was dedicated to her at the Galerie Druet in 1925 and at the Galerie Bernheim in 1923, as well as in London (Leicester Gallery, 1934), New York (Maurice Harriman Gallery, 1936; Julien Levy Gallery, 1937), and Warsaw (Press and Book Club, 1956).

Alice Halicka's works are now preserved in museums such as the Museum of Jewish Art and History and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the MoMA, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Barnes Foundation, and the National Museum in Warsaw.