{"id":1869,"date":"2020-05-05T20:28:25","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T09:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=1869"},"modified":"2020-11-11T17:29:45","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T06:59:45","slug":"joseph-stanislaus-ostoja-kotkowski","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=1869","title":{"rendered":"Joseph Stanislaus (Stan) Ostoja-Kotkowski"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Text: Elisabeth Anderson
<\/em>Images: Invaluable Auction and Galleries,<\/em> Mary Beaven, SLSA <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"

Stan Ostoja-Kotkowski with an artwork based on his use of Moir\u00e9 Grating pattern. <\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Polish-born\nJoseph Stanislaus Ostoja-Kotkowski, who lived much of his adult life in\nStirling, was an award-winning artist recognised in Australia and overseas for\nhis pioneering work in laser sound and image technology and he was best known\nfor his ground-breaking work in chromasonics, laser kinetics and sound and\nimage productions. This art work took many forms and earnt him a number of\nawards, including an Order of Cultural Merit from Poland and the Order of Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\nSome of his earlier artistic endeavours included painting, photography, film making, stained glass, sculpture, murals and vitreous enamels and  examples of this can be found in both St Matthew\u2019s Catholic Church in Bridgewater and St Maximilian Kolbe Church in the Adelaide suburb of Ottoway; and at the Dom Polski Centre in Angas Street stands his Katyn Memorial which commemorates Polish military personnel killed in action in World War II and the 4000 victims of a massacre in Katyn Forest in 1940.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Katyn Memorial at the Dom Polski Centre in Adelaide, photographed by Mary Beaven. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Stan\u2019s life\nstory begins in Golub, Poland, where he was born on 28th<\/sup> December\n1922. He was the son of a bank manager who was placed in a forced labour camp\nduring the Nazi occupation in World War II and during those years he worked at\nseveral jobs to support his mother and younger sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having\ndemonstrated artistic talent from an early age, he was also studying painting\nand drawing under Olgierd Vetesco in Przasnysz but in early 1945 was sent into\nforced labour in Warendorf, West Germany. At the end of the War Stan was\nrelocated to a displaced persons camp in D\u00fcsseldorf and after winning a scholarship he\ncompleted his studies there at the Academy\nof Fine Arts in 1949 and then immigrated to Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His first job was cutting sandwiches\nat an army camp in Victoria but during that time he also attended the National\nGallery School. He came to South Australia in 1954 and lived and worked in\nStirling from 1955 onwards. His home and studio were on Arbroath, <\/em>the estate of Edward Stirling Booth and Freya Booth who\nwas a daughter of the artist Sir Hans Heysen. Stan lived under the patronage of\nthe Booth family for over 40 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"

Two dancers surrounded by an electronic image 1964 <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was when working in the outback at the Leigh Creek coalfields in 1954-55 that light and colour inspired his artistic direction and capturing their intensity became the focus of his artistic creativity. At Stanford University, California, on a Churchill Fellowship in 1967, he came across the newly discovered laser and by the following year he had developed this beam to stage a Sound and Image production at the Adelaide Festival of Arts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stan\u2019s baptismal font in St Matthew\u2019s\nChurch Bridgewater is on a stand of wrought iron and vertically patterned St\nGobain French glass, able to be illuminated to highlight its colours. Stan drew\non Polish tradition by using two plough shares for the font, symbolising the\nlink between the function of the plough and the human nature of man and his\nultimate return to dust. The church, which was officially opened in 1966, also\nhas Stan\u2019s windows which are vertically patterned in varying densities of\namber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A 1955 oil on canvas painting of the Bridgewater Mill, illustrated on the \u201cInvaluable Auction and Galleries\u201d website and sold in 2011. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The art in St Maxmillian Kolbe Church\nis his only known mosaic of traditional stone work and is of great\nsignificance. Stan identified strongly with his Polish heritage and links to\nthe Polish community were important to him. He attended Polish services at St\nJoseph the Worker and was a friend of Father Marian Szablewski. After this\nchurch was burnt down Stan offered to contribute to the new building by\ndesigning a mosaic. When he discovered that the new church was to be dedicated\nto a martyr from Auschwitz he felt an even closer connection to the project as\nhe himself had escaped from the Nazi transport to one of their concentration\ncamps in Germany. His design for the mosaic symbolised the bringing together of\npeople from all around the world and the common burdens they all shared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This church\nwas also the place of Stan\u2019s funeral following his death from heart failure on\n2nd<\/sup> April 1994. He was described as a man who was \u201ca Pole to the\nmarrow of his bones\u201d and among the mourners was Australia\u2019s Polish Ambassador\nfrom Sydney. The many tributes included a message from his mother, then aged 91\nand living in a small village in Poland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stan\u2019s\narchives, held in Adelaide and Melbourne, were inscribed on the United Nations\nEducational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation\u2019s Australian Memory of the\nWorld program in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His life, artistic achievement and awards may be read in more detail in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Wikipedia and the website of the SA History Hub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The State Library of SA hold a rich collection of pioneering digital arts materials relating to the work of Joseph Stanislaus (Stan) Ostoja-Kotkowski. This collection includes nearly eight hundred 3\u00bd inch floppy disks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Do you have stories or memories of Stan and his time in the Adelaide Hills? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact us at mldhsgateways@mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au<\/a> or drop into the History Centre at the Coventry Library, 63 Mount Barker Road, Stirling.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn about other artists from the Mt Lofty Districts in “Art & Music” <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Text: Elisabeth Anderson Images: Invaluable Auction and Galleries, Mary Beaven, SLSA Polish-born Joseph Stanislaus Ostoja-Kotkowski, who lived much of his adult life in Stirling, was an award-winning artist recognised in Australia and overseas for his pioneering work in laser sound and image technology and he was best known for his ground-breaking work in chromasonics, laser … Continue reading “Joseph Stanislaus (Stan) Ostoja-Kotkowski”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PaNLq6-u9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2137,"url":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=2137","url_meta":{"origin":1869,"position":0},"title":"Our Migrant Heritage","date":"July 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Return to Gateways Topics In this section we explore the impact of those people who have come from other countries to make the Hills their home and we tell their stories from past and present. 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NAA is the National Archives of Australia SLSA is the State Library of South Australia SAHH is the SA\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1310,"url":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=1310","url_meta":{"origin":1869,"position":5},"title":"Frank Allen Schantz","date":"August 26, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Karen Agutter Image: National Archives Australia: Series B2455, SCHANTZ FRANK ALLEN Frank Allen Schantz was born at Piccadilly in 1889 to Niels Morgomso Schantz and Jane (nee Allen). Frank attended Crafers Primary School and was a gardener by occupation. He enlisted for service in August 1915 aged 26. 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