DOI Heft:
I. Po śmierci Jana Białostockiego: Wspomnienia i nekrologi
DOI Artikel:Skubiszewski, Piotr; Białostocki, Jan [Bearb.]; Białostocki, Jan [Gefeierte Pers.]: Jan Białostocki - obituary
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19643#0123
JAN BIAŁOSTOCKI — OBITUARY
" an Białostocki, who died in Warsaw on 25th December, was one of the most
distinguished art historians of the twentieth century. Born in 1921, he belonged to a
generation of Poles whose youth was scarred not only by the war, but also by Stalin's regime.
His studies in French literaturę, philosophy and the history of art at Warsaw University were
pursued under difficult and clandestine circumstances, and in 1944 he was placed in a Nazi
concentration camp. After the war, in 1945, he was appointed an assistant at the University
and at the Warsaw National Museum; but in 1950 — the year he submitted his thesis — he
was stripped of the former post, having become "undesirable". By the early 1950s, however,
his reputation as an art historian was already recognised in Poland, and he found a happy
refuge from political strife as Curator of the Department of European Painting in the
National Museum.
The most intensely active period of his professional life began in 1959 when he was
allowed to return to the University, where he taught post-medieval western art and the
history of artistic theory at the Institute of Art History, becoming a professor in 1962 and
director from 1984 until his death. Every year a number of universities, academies and
learned societies entrusted him with individual lectures or courses or invited him to
participate in colloąuia, and his contribution to learning was recognised by honorary degrees
from Groningen, Mainz and Brussels, by his election to the Polish, Dutch and Belgian
Academies, and those of Madrid, Venice and Mainz, and by Polish and international prizes.
His wide-ranging knowledge, tact and diplomacy made him much in demand, and he was
President of the Art History Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Vice President of
the International Committee for the History of Art and of the International Academic
Union, President of the Conseil International de la Philosophie et des Sciences Humaines of
UNESCO, member of the editorial boards of dozens of scholarly journals and President of
the Polish Association of Art Historians from 1963 to 1980. His impact on the last was
particularly marked.
119
" an Białostocki, who died in Warsaw on 25th December, was one of the most
distinguished art historians of the twentieth century. Born in 1921, he belonged to a
generation of Poles whose youth was scarred not only by the war, but also by Stalin's regime.
His studies in French literaturę, philosophy and the history of art at Warsaw University were
pursued under difficult and clandestine circumstances, and in 1944 he was placed in a Nazi
concentration camp. After the war, in 1945, he was appointed an assistant at the University
and at the Warsaw National Museum; but in 1950 — the year he submitted his thesis — he
was stripped of the former post, having become "undesirable". By the early 1950s, however,
his reputation as an art historian was already recognised in Poland, and he found a happy
refuge from political strife as Curator of the Department of European Painting in the
National Museum.
The most intensely active period of his professional life began in 1959 when he was
allowed to return to the University, where he taught post-medieval western art and the
history of artistic theory at the Institute of Art History, becoming a professor in 1962 and
director from 1984 until his death. Every year a number of universities, academies and
learned societies entrusted him with individual lectures or courses or invited him to
participate in colloąuia, and his contribution to learning was recognised by honorary degrees
from Groningen, Mainz and Brussels, by his election to the Polish, Dutch and Belgian
Academies, and those of Madrid, Venice and Mainz, and by Polish and international prizes.
His wide-ranging knowledge, tact and diplomacy made him much in demand, and he was
President of the Art History Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Vice President of
the International Committee for the History of Art and of the International Academic
Union, President of the Conseil International de la Philosophie et des Sciences Humaines of
UNESCO, member of the editorial boards of dozens of scholarly journals and President of
the Polish Association of Art Historians from 1963 to 1980. His impact on the last was
particularly marked.
119