Witkacy

Witkacy was a visionary ahead of his times, and yet a concretely pungent prankster, whose cutting-
egde judgement and catastrophic prophesies allow new generations to rediscover his work time and
again. One of the few Polish artists whose significance for world art history endures the test of time.

His nickname "Witkacy" is synonymous with scandal, mystery, shrouded in legend as an irrepressible
artist and drug addict. His contact with drugs, however, was very controlled, as the painter decided
to test the effects of psychoactive substances and their influence on the shape of the created work.
This fact alone makes Witkacy appear as an exceptional and charismatic personality. A master of
imagination, an excellent portraitist, known for the peculiar rules he applied when commissioning
likenesses, more or less real and caricatured, which could be decided by the commissioning party.
Author of the concept of "pure form", connected with evoking a metaphysical feeling through art. It
is the impression that counts, not the content.

Gierymski

Gierymski was a distinguished painter of themes from Polish history. In spite of being a brother of a
prominent Polish painter, Maksymilian Gierymski, Aleksander Gierymski managed to relieve himself
of the burden and reputation of being the "younger brother", feeling free to develop his own artistic
talents. He was the creator of the well-known night views of Munich and Paris that are presently at
the Warsaw National Museum. Nowadays, his works belong equally to the highlights of Polish
painting and the Munich School of Painters.

Gierymski's realism has something very touching, an unusual element of sensitivity, a great power in
presenting ordinary and extraordinary things at the same time. Known for his experiments with color
and light, which brought him closer to French impressionism

The most splendid period of Aleksander Gierymski's work fell on the years 1879-1888, which the
artist spent in Warsaw. During this period, he joined a group of young writers and painters from the
Positivist movement.

He spent the last years of his life in Italy. He died most probably on March 8, 1901 in Rome in a
hospital for the mentally ill.

Beksinski

He was born in Sanok, southern Poland. He studied architecture in Kraków. In 1955, he completed his
studies and returned to Sanok, working as a construction site supervisor, but found that he did not
enjoy it. During this period, he had an interest in montage photography, sculpting, and painting.
When he first started sculpting, he often used his construction site materials for his medium. His
early photography was a precursor to his later paintings, often depicting peculiar wrinkles, desolate
landscapes, and still-life faces on rough surfaces. His paintings often depict anxiety, such as torn doll
faces, or faces erased or obscured by bandages wrapped around the portrait. His main focus was on
abstract painting, although it seems his works in the 1960s were inspired by surrealism.
Beksiński undertook painting with a passion, working intensely while listening to classical music. He
soon became the leading figure in contemporary Polish art. In the late 1960s, Beksiński entered what
he himself called his "fantastic period," which lasted into the mid-1980s. This is his best-known
period, during which he created disturbing images, showing a gloomy, surrealistic environment with
detailed scenes of death, decay, landscapes filled with skeletons, deformed figures, and deserts.
These detailed works were painted with his trademark precision. At the time, Beksiński claimed, "I
wish to paint in such a manner as if I were photographing dreams."

Although Beksiński's art was often grim, he himself was known to be a pleasant person who took
enjoyment from conversation and had a keen sense of humor. He was modest and somewhat shy,
avoiding public events such as the openings of his own exhibitions. He credited music as his main
source of inspiration. He claimed not to be much influenced by literature, cinema or the work of
other artists, and almost never visited museums or exhibitions. Beksiński avoided concrete analysis of
the content of his work, saying "I cannot conceive of a sensible statement on painting". He was
especially dismissive of those who sought or offered simple answers to what his work 'meant'.

Beksiński was stabbed to death at his Warsaw apartment on February 2005, by a 19-year-old
acquaintance from Wołomin, reportedly because he refused to lend the teenager money.

Siudmak

Wojciech Siudmak is considered the main representative of fantasy realism, which combines
surrealistic vision with naturalistic art and has its roots in surrealism represented by S. Dali and R.
Magritte. Siudmak shares with Dali a virtuosity in rendering the three-dimensional illusion of space, a
sense of light and shadow, linear and aerial perspectives. Siudmak's timeless and deeply individual
art, far from being theoretical or fashionable, captivates with its Renaissance virtuosity and
perfection and imagination that transcends the horizon. It fascinates with intellectual richness. The
artist's world is unique, full of personal symbolism, fantastic characters and constructions based on
strange and unexpected tangles of thought. It is governed by his motto: Only a dream can cross
insurmountable barriers.

The artist is often compared to Salvador Dali. It is an apparent similarity, because in both artists we
find fascination with the same source of inspiration: the art of the Renaissance and Baroque.
Siudmak admires and pays tribute to the works of Giovanni Bernini, Giovanni B. Tiepolo, Hieronymus
Bosch, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, and Michelangelo. He is also fascinated by 19th century painters:
Dominique Ingres, William Blake, Arnold Bocklin and the Surrealists. The artist has never felt the
need to belong to any formation or trend. He values freedom and creative independence.
Consistently following his chosen direction, he fulfills himself creatively in the authenticity of his
artistic expression.

He considers himself a continuator and heir to the great tradition of fantastic art. When asked about
his inspirations, he claims to be fascinated by the Universe and the questions it raises. He is
passionate about the work of physicists and astrophysicists, whom he considers a kind of scientific,
artistic and aesthetic avant-garde of our times, because they provide society with a new view of the
Universe. The artist looks for universal beauty based on mathematical and philosophical models. He
is not interested in apparent beauty, but, following the example of the ancient Greeks, intuitively
reads it in the mathematical rules of cosmic harmony and in the views of ancient great thinkers.

His works are distributed throughout the world and used for music posters, theater and film
performances. They became graphic symbols of such prestigious events as festivals and film reviews
in Cannes, Montreal, Paris. Great companies have chosen his paintings and sculptures to express
their image, their research and technological achievements through the art of Wojciech Siudmak. His
paintings have appeared for many years on album and book covers of the greatest collections of
world literature in France, Germany and the United States.

Weiss

"He was a versatile artist: he practiced oil painting, printmaking and utility graphics, created pastels,
watercolors, left many sketches. The greatest influence on his work had Jacek Malczewski and Leon
Wyczółkowski, under whose tutelage he studied at the School of Fine Arts. His painting, at first
imbued with a decadent atmosphere, after 1905 is characterized by a dominance of white colors, and
then enriched in color. The artist's subjects included mainly landscapes and nudes, but he also
created larger compositions imbued with symbolism, often directly inspired by the prose of Stanisław
Przybyszewski.

A turning point in Weiss's life came when he purchased a small, picturesquely situated house in
Kalwaria. It was then, thanks to his close contact with nature, that Japanese influences began to
appear in his work. Weiss became deeply familiar with the aesthetic and compositional principles of
Japanese woodcuts, and then processed and used them, among other things, in his native
landscapes. Weiss took his love of Far Eastern art from its greatest Polish collector and propagator,
Feliks Manggha Jasieński, his close friend."

Wróblewski

Wróblewski made his mark in the history of art as a painter of the Second World War and its demons
that haunted him throughout his 30 year life. He lived a short, but intense life, constantly searching
for the most suitable way to express himself through art. His "Queues" are an image of frozen and
paralyzing waiting, both for the realization of material things, but also for what will happen later,
when life has come to an end. Especially moving are his "Execusion" (eight canvases), in which evil
has no face, but acts with great force, making the viewer completely helpless to everything he is
forced to watch.