Eight years in the making, Magierski’s film traces Stanczak’s singular journey from Poland to the United States and his transformation from refugee to an artist. This striking documentary reveals a life and legacy defined by an insatiable fascination with colour.

Painter Julian Stanczak (1928-2017), who taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art for over three decades, was a pioneering abstract artist whose 1964 exhibition Optical Paintings at NYC’s Martha Jackson Gallery prompted Time magazine to coin the term “Op Art.” Born in Poland shortly before WWII, Stanczak lived an eventful, peripatetic life that saw him relocating from Poland to Siberia, Iran, Uganda, and the U.K. before finally settling in the U.S. in 1950. While in a Soviet gulag, he lost the use of his right arm, forcing him to learn to paint (and do everything else) with his left. This new Polish documentary draws upon archival photographs, film clips, and previously unseen interviews with the artist, to recount Stanczak’s life and triumph over adversity.