DOI issue:
Nr. 1-2
DOI article:Paszkiewicz, Piotr: Polskie środowisko artystyczne w Wiekiej Brytanii w latach II wojny światowej
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48917#0153
POLSCY ARTYŚCI W WIELKIEJ BRYTANII
However, most of the Polish artists active in Great
Britain were engaged in the war effort of the Allies. They
were first of all war artists, the chroniclers of the military
campaigns and actions. I mean here Witold Mars, Ma-
rian Walentynowicz, Aleksander Żyw, and Feliks To-
polski. When recording the vicissitudes of the war,
Topolski covered almost all the fronts from the Soviet
Union, Near East, India, China, Africa, to France and
Germany. Three albums of his drawings were published
during war (Britain in Peace and War - 1941; The
Russian Front. WarPictures; Three Continents -1945),
being a fraction of the enormous output of the artist.
War subjects, themeselves not a pure recording of
the current events but a means of expression of human
drama seen and transformed in the artistic imagination,
were close to many Polish painters. For them the war
constituted a ceasura in their artistic development, the
change of the painterly style. Such was the case of Janina
Konarska’s works whose lyrical mood was replaced by
severe realism, as well as of Jankiel Adler whose art
became the reaction to the horrors of the Holocaust. A
series of Marian KratochwiFs dry-point engrawings
(War) from 1941-42 is an ambitious and extremely
convincing attempt to create an artistic synthesis of the
war experiences. The war sufferings of Poland became
a source of inspiration for Henryk Gotlib’s monumental
composition entitled The Polish War Triptych', painted
in 1940-44, the work comprises Warsaw, September
1939 in its central part as well as MickiewiczReturning
to Cracov and StabatMater in the side wings.
Numerous Polish artists were also occupied with
illustrating various publications. Mention should be ma-
dę of Bogusław Leitgeber, Artur Horowicz, Janina Ko-
narska, Wojciech Jastrzębowski, Jan Lewitt and Jerzy
Him, as well as Kazimierz Pacewicz. The latter was the
author of 30 colour plates to the album Polish military
Forces over Centuries. A Thousand Years of the Polish
Arms, published in London in 1944.
Although less popular, other techniąues were also
practised. Apart from war and religious oil paintings,
Adam Bunsch produced stained-glass Windows for two
Catholic churches: in Scotland with the presentation of
Our Lady of Częstochowa and the scenes of the Annun-
ciation and the Crucifixion, and in Ixmdon. There were
also sculptors, though far less numerous than painters.
However, at least some names ought to be listed here:
Marek Szwarc, Józef Henelt and Tadeusz Koper, who
was Dunikowskie disciple.
It is fascinating to notę that in the artistic vision of
the war, itself fuli of dramatic and even tragic accents,
there also appeared elements of humour. Noteworthy is
the work of Marian Walentynowicz, the author of The
Adventures of Walenty Pompka, an amusing cartoon-li-
ke story supplemented with humorous poems by Ry-
szard Pobog and presenting fantastic adventures of a
Polish soldier on all the fronts. A humorous flair was not
alien to Antoni Wasilewski, the editor of the satirical
biweekly "Werinajs" (1941-42). Caricature was also
cultivated by Jan Sterling and Eugeniusz Gramski.
During the war there were over 50 exhibitions of
Polish art in Great Britain. Of significance were the
exhibitions of the Allied Nations, where the works of the
Polish artists and those of such celebrities like Oskar
Kokoschka, Jan Sluyters or James Ensor were shown
side by side. In generał, the works of Polish artists were
highly approved by the English critics and public. This
does not concem only Feliks Topolski, who was the
author of the most popular portrait of Winston Churchill,
known in thousands of lithograph copies. Adam Kosso-
wski ’s picture was awarded a prize at the exhibition of
religious painting in London in March 1945. When
writing about the exhibition at the London Agnew’s
Gallery the critic Erie Newton found favourable words
for the work of Gotlib, Żuławski and Koper.
The end of World War II radically changes the
character of the Polish artistic milieu in Great Britain.
Together with the II Corps of generał Anders there came
Polish artists from Italy. Others began to arrive in this
country from the Near East. However, the problems
connected with their assimilation as well as with the
beginnings of artistic education go beyond the scope of
this essay.
143
However, most of the Polish artists active in Great
Britain were engaged in the war effort of the Allies. They
were first of all war artists, the chroniclers of the military
campaigns and actions. I mean here Witold Mars, Ma-
rian Walentynowicz, Aleksander Żyw, and Feliks To-
polski. When recording the vicissitudes of the war,
Topolski covered almost all the fronts from the Soviet
Union, Near East, India, China, Africa, to France and
Germany. Three albums of his drawings were published
during war (Britain in Peace and War - 1941; The
Russian Front. WarPictures; Three Continents -1945),
being a fraction of the enormous output of the artist.
War subjects, themeselves not a pure recording of
the current events but a means of expression of human
drama seen and transformed in the artistic imagination,
were close to many Polish painters. For them the war
constituted a ceasura in their artistic development, the
change of the painterly style. Such was the case of Janina
Konarska’s works whose lyrical mood was replaced by
severe realism, as well as of Jankiel Adler whose art
became the reaction to the horrors of the Holocaust. A
series of Marian KratochwiFs dry-point engrawings
(War) from 1941-42 is an ambitious and extremely
convincing attempt to create an artistic synthesis of the
war experiences. The war sufferings of Poland became
a source of inspiration for Henryk Gotlib’s monumental
composition entitled The Polish War Triptych', painted
in 1940-44, the work comprises Warsaw, September
1939 in its central part as well as MickiewiczReturning
to Cracov and StabatMater in the side wings.
Numerous Polish artists were also occupied with
illustrating various publications. Mention should be ma-
dę of Bogusław Leitgeber, Artur Horowicz, Janina Ko-
narska, Wojciech Jastrzębowski, Jan Lewitt and Jerzy
Him, as well as Kazimierz Pacewicz. The latter was the
author of 30 colour plates to the album Polish military
Forces over Centuries. A Thousand Years of the Polish
Arms, published in London in 1944.
Although less popular, other techniąues were also
practised. Apart from war and religious oil paintings,
Adam Bunsch produced stained-glass Windows for two
Catholic churches: in Scotland with the presentation of
Our Lady of Częstochowa and the scenes of the Annun-
ciation and the Crucifixion, and in Ixmdon. There were
also sculptors, though far less numerous than painters.
However, at least some names ought to be listed here:
Marek Szwarc, Józef Henelt and Tadeusz Koper, who
was Dunikowskie disciple.
It is fascinating to notę that in the artistic vision of
the war, itself fuli of dramatic and even tragic accents,
there also appeared elements of humour. Noteworthy is
the work of Marian Walentynowicz, the author of The
Adventures of Walenty Pompka, an amusing cartoon-li-
ke story supplemented with humorous poems by Ry-
szard Pobog and presenting fantastic adventures of a
Polish soldier on all the fronts. A humorous flair was not
alien to Antoni Wasilewski, the editor of the satirical
biweekly "Werinajs" (1941-42). Caricature was also
cultivated by Jan Sterling and Eugeniusz Gramski.
During the war there were over 50 exhibitions of
Polish art in Great Britain. Of significance were the
exhibitions of the Allied Nations, where the works of the
Polish artists and those of such celebrities like Oskar
Kokoschka, Jan Sluyters or James Ensor were shown
side by side. In generał, the works of Polish artists were
highly approved by the English critics and public. This
does not concem only Feliks Topolski, who was the
author of the most popular portrait of Winston Churchill,
known in thousands of lithograph copies. Adam Kosso-
wski ’s picture was awarded a prize at the exhibition of
religious painting in London in March 1945. When
writing about the exhibition at the London Agnew’s
Gallery the critic Erie Newton found favourable words
for the work of Gotlib, Żuławski and Koper.
The end of World War II radically changes the
character of the Polish artistic milieu in Great Britain.
Together with the II Corps of generał Anders there came
Polish artists from Italy. Others began to arrive in this
country from the Near East. However, the problems
connected with their assimilation as well as with the
beginnings of artistic education go beyond the scope of
this essay.
143