Born 1934 in Lesko, Poland. Died 2021 in Fredelin, France.
He studied painting and textile art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw between 1955 and 1961 under the guidance of Artur Nacht-Samborski and Mieczysław Szymański. In 1966, he immigrated to France, where he initially developed his artistic career in Paris before later moving to Nice and Angers.
Initially aligned with the aesthetic sensibilities of the École de Paris, Baran’s work gradually moved beyond conventional painterly traditions. Seeking a dialogue between materiality and void, he pioneered his own technique—papiers déchirés, the art of torn papers—where the act of rupture became both a gesture of destruction and creation. His practice transcended the limits of painting, venturing into the realm of spatial exploration at the intersection of painting, sculpture, and textile.
Baran’s compositions interrogate the essence of matter, dwelling on the fragile threshold between being and dissolution. Fragments of thread-like filaments and shredded paper unfold like the residues of dreams—an existential tapestry where chaos is not simply depicted but enacted. The viewer is invited to participate in this delicate balancing act, navigating a shifting landscape where perception itself remains in flux. His chosen medium—packing paper, layered, soaked, torn, and reassembled with tenuous threads—becomes the skeletal structure upon which color drifts, stains, and pools in intuitive gestures. At once delicate and forceful, his abstract works pulsate with a poetic expressiveness, whispering of impermanence, entropy, and the quiet tension of existence within an ever-eroding world.
Edward Baran’s works are housed in esteemed collections, including Musée des Tapisseries, Aix-en-Provence, Musée des Beaux-Arts et Musée Jean-Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, Angers, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, Kunstindustrie Museum, Oslo, Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain des Pays de la Loire, Mobilier National, Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Nice, The National Museum in Warsaw
