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Polish Cultural Institutes
Ministry of Culture and National Heritage - Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych
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Adam Mickiewicz Institute ul. Mokotowska 25 00-560 Warsaw tel. (+48 22) 44 76 100 fax (+48 22) 44 76 152 www.iam.pl ![]() about us
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It was during Poland's occupation, a particularly difficult time in Fijałkowski's life, that he undertook his first creative explorations as an artist. These efforts were entirely independent, unguided by anyone. He did not find time for systematic study in painting until after the war. Between 1946 and 1951 he attended the State Higher School of the Fine Arts in Łódź, where he was a student of Władysław Strzemiński and Stefan Wegner, though he had Ludwik Tyrowicz as his thesis promoter. From among his teachers, Fijałkowski most readily names Strzemiński as an influence, perhaps because he later worked under him as an assistant (the artist taught at his alma mater from 1947-1993, becoming a full professor in 1983). He was an important presence within the group of educators who shaped the school in Łódź (known today as the Academy of Fine Arts). He also guest lectured for brief periods at a series of foreign art schools, among them the schools in Mons (1978, 1982) and Marburg (1990). He taught classes at Geissen University throughout the 1989/90 academic year. Fijałkowski began his career as an independent artist by rebelling against his master, creating works that possess a clear link to those of the Impressionists. He made an effort to delineate his own, individual creative path by taking a clear position towards tradition and the achievements of the masters, particularly Strzemiński. Towards the end of the 1950s he proceeded along a course typical of Polish painters fascinated with Informel, taking an interest in the symbolic meanings inherent in abstract expressive means. He believed that "unreal" shapes are justified in paintings when they are saturated with meaning. Years later, in writing a brief curriculum vitae, the artist added that it was approximately at this time that "...apart from interpreting reality within an esoteric dimension, there appeared [in his paintings] the need to organize the esoteric meanings inherent in form." Fijałkowski admits that the shape of his art was to a significant degree determined by the writings of Kandinsky (whose "Über das Geistige in der Kunst" Fijalkowski translated and published in Poland) and Mondrian, and by his interest in Surrealism. These two branches of 20th century art unexpectedly combined in Fijałkowski's art to produce surprising results. At the turn of the 1950s and 60s Fijałkowski continued to search and experiment, using the canvas as a plane on which to juxtapose the essentials of Strzemiński's ordering principles with something within the realm of Surrealism that was stripped of direct metaphorical meanings and allusions.
Stanisław Fijałkowski is chairman of the Polish section of the Xylon International Association of Wood-Engravers and has been a vice president of this body's International Board since 1990. Between 1974 and 1979 he was the vice president of the Polish AIAP Committee (Association Internationale des Arts Plastiques). He is a member of the European Academy of Arts and Sciences in Salzburg and the Royal Belgian Academy of Sciences, Literature, and Fine Arts in Brussels. The artist represented Poland at the biennales in Sao Paulo (1969) and Venice (1972). In 1977 he received the Cyprian Kamil Norwid Art Criticism Prize and was awarded the prestigious Jan Cybis Prize in 1990. He has also received numerous domestic and international awards at a number of exhibitions, including the Graphic Art Biennale in Krakow (1968 and 1970), the Bianco e Nero Exhibition in Lugano (1972), and the Graphic Art Biennale in Lubliana (1977). In celebration of the artist's 70th birthday, the National Museum in Poznań is planning a retrospective of Fijałkowski's work for the year 2002. Author: Małgorzata Kitowska-Łysiak, Art History Institute of the Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Art Theory and the History of Artistic Doctrines, December 2001. |
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![]() On Monday, September 20, the first Polish arena for the Euro 2012 Cup will open in Poznań. The official ceremony will be honoured with a concert featuring Sting performing with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, conducted by Steven Mercurio. Until September 25 (except for Sundays and holidays), the John the Baptist Archcathedral in Warsaw will host daily organ recitals as part of the 7th edition of the "Grand Organ of the Archicathedral" Festival. "Dotyk człowieka/Beruehrungen" is the title of the exhibition presenting works of six Polish contemporary artists displayed at the German Embassy in Warsaw (Jazdów street): on view until September 27. On October 17, the National Museum in Poznań will host the first public presentation of Claude Monet's "Beach in Pourville". The painting was stolen ten years ago. The painting returned to the museum in January 2010 after the folice found the thief. Jazz pianist Chick Corea will give his only Polish solo concert on November 8 in Zabrze.
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