Erna Rosenstein

{{Short description|Polish artist (1913-2004)}}

{{Infobox artist

| name = Erna Rosenstein

| image = Erna Rosenstein.jpg

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1913|5|17|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Lviv, Austria-Hungary

| death_date = {{death date and age|2004|11|10|1913|5|17|mf=y}}

| death_place = Warsaw, Poland

| education =

| field = painter, poet

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File:Erna Rosenstein, Eternity Gives Birth to the Moment.jpg

Erna Rosenstein was a Polish painter and Holocaust survivor. She was born on May 17, 1913, in Lviv, Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine).{{cite web |title=Erna Rosenstein |url=https://rkd.nl/nl/explore/artists/332195 |website=RKD |access-date=28 April 2023 |language=nl}}{{cite web |title=Post-War Artist Erna Rosenstein: Exploring Surrealism, Trauma, and Whimsy |url=https://awomensthing.org/blog/erna-rosenstein/ |website=A Women’s Thing |access-date=28 April 2023 |date=4 March 2022}} She was associated with the surrealist movement both as a visual artist and a writer.{{cite web |title=Erna Rosenstein |url=https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/erna-rosenstein/ |website=AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes |access-date=28 April 2023}} she studied at the {{ill|Wiener Frauenakademie|de}} in Vienna and the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków.{{cite web |title=Erna Rosenstein |url=https://culture.pl/en/artist/erna-rosenstein |website=Culture.pl |publisher=Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage |access-date=28 April 2023 |language=en}} She was associated with the pre-war Kraków Group.{{cite web |title=Erna Rosenstein, Appeal of the Polish Workers' Party (1942) |url=https://neveragain.artmuseum.pl/en/artysta/erna-rosenstein |website=Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw |access-date=28 April 2023 |language=en}}

Rosenstein's parents were murdered after escaping Warsaw in 1942.{{cite web |last1=Michalska |first1=Dorota Jagoda |title=Where the Lightnings Have Their Palace: Erna Rosenstein and Global Surrealisms |url=https://post.moma.org/where-the-lightnings-have-their-palace-erna-rosenstein-and-global-surrealisms/ |website=post |access-date=28 April 2023 |date=9 March 2023}} Rosenstein survived World War II, hiding under various aliases.

After the war, Rosenstein co-founded the Second Kraków Group. In 1955 she was included in the exhibit Nine Artists along with fellow artist Tadeusz Brzozowski, Maria Jarema, Tadeusz Kantor, {{ill|Jadwiga Maziarska|pl}}, {{ill|Kazimierz Mikulski|pl}}, Jerzy Nowosielski, Jerzy Skarżyński, and {{ill|Jonasz Stern|pl}}. In 1967 a retrospective of her work was held at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art.

Rosenstein's brother, the Austrian professor Paul N. Rosenstein-Rodan went on to become a Boston University professor and economist. He coined the term "underdeveloped countries". She was married to Polish-Jewish literary critic Artur Sandauer.{{citation needed|date= April 2023}} Rosenstein died on November 10, 2004, in Warsaw, Poland.

Her work is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago{{cite web |last1= |first1= |title=Night (Noc) |url=https://www.artic.edu/artworks/247700/night-noc |website=Art Institute of Chicago |access-date=28 April 2023 |date=1993}} In 2021 the Hauser & Wirth Gallery in New York held her first solo exhibition outside of Poland, entitled Once Upon a Time.{{cite magazine |title=Erna Rosenstein |url=https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/art/erna-rosenstein-2021 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=28 April 2023 |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=Brock |first1=Peter |title=Erna Rosenstein's Dreamlike Forms Resist Interpretation |url=https://www.frieze.com/article/erna-rosenstein-once-upon-a-time-2021-review |journal=Frieze |access-date=28 April 2023 |language=en |date=9 November 2021|issue=224 }}{{cite web |last1=Kuspit |first1=Donald |title=Donald Kuspit on Erna Rosenstein |url=https://www.artforum.com/print/reviews/202201/erna-rosenstein-87457 |website=Art Forum |access-date=28 April 2023}} In 2023 her work was included in the exhibition Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.{{cite web |title=Action, Gesture, Paint |url=https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/action-gesture-paint-women-and-global-abstraction-1940-70/ |website=Whitechapel Gallery |access-date=26 April 2023 |language=en}}