Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy) (1885 - 1939)

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy) (1885 - 1939)

Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków under Jan Stanislawski and Joseph Mehoffer.

Polish painter, illustrator, photographer, playwright, novelist, philosopher, art theorist, and critic.

Son of painter, architect and art critic Stanisław Witkiewicz, Witkacy broke from the dominant Social Realism of his time in favor of the avant-garde.  After enjoying success as a painter, he resigned from oil painting in 1925, believing that painting could not express pure forms.  At this time, capitalizing on his previous success, he started the S.I. Witkiewicz Portrait Painting Firm where he took commissions for pastel portraits and offered varying prices for the techniques and imagery involved. By the 1930's Witkacy started marking his paintings with codes revealing the various drugs he took while working.

Recommended reading:

http://www.culture.pl/web/english/resources-visual-arts-full-page/-/eo_event_asset_publisher/eAN5/content/stanislaw-ignacy-witkiewicz-witkacy

PS: I tend to think of Witkacy as the Polish Mr. Crowley. 

PSS: I own a Witkacy, though I am skeptical of its authenticity.

Janek (Jan) Simon (1977 – Current)

Janek (Jan) Simon (1977 – Current)

Studied psychology and sociology at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow.

With no formal art training Jan Simon began showing his art, mostly films and interactive installations, in 2002.  His work tends to be conceptual and ironic borrowing from popular culture, video, and the internet. His 2004 installation, Carpet Invaders, is actually a projected interactive game, not a woven carpet depicting including the old-school Atari game, Space Invaders.

Tadeusz Kantor (1915 – 1990)

Tadeusz Kantor (1915 – 1990)

Studied at the Krakow Academy.

Polish painter, assemblage artist, set designer and theatre director.

Kantor started the Young Artists Group and the Underground Independent Theatre while Krakow was still under of Nazi occupied Poland.

After the war, Kantor's rejection of Socialist Realism led to his dismissal from the faculty at the Higher School of Fine Arts.

Many of his paintings feature umbrellas, bags, crumpled rags and pieces of paper, common garbage - transposed from everyday life to the world of art.

His well-known avant-garde theatre group, CRICOT 2, produced many of plays including those written by himself and by Witkiewicz.

Recommended reading: http://www.culture.pl/web/english/resources-visual-arts-full-page/-/eo_event_asset_publisher/eAN5/content/tadeusz-kantor

Stanisław Wyspiański (1869-1907)

Stanisław Wyspiański (1869-1907)

Studied philosophy at the Jagiellonian University and art at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków under Jan Matejko.

Studied at the private atelier Académie Colarossi.

One of the most prolific and beloved artists from Poland, Wyspiański’s visual art is rivaled by his work in drama, in particular, Wesele (The Wedding). A painter, draughtsman, playwright, theatre director and set designer, Wyspiański died at an early age and much of his work from 1900-1907, including many of his soft pastel portraits and landscapes (he was allegedly allergic to oil paints), and his masterpiece, Boga Ojca (God the Father) at the Basilica of St Francis in Kraków, considered by some to be the best example of stained glass in modern times, were all crated and/or actualized during this period. Though his work and life enjoys a lot of visibility on the web, not to include him here would be a serious error.  For further reading please check the links provided:

http://www.cracow-life.com/poland/stanislaw-wyspianski
http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/wyspianski/timeline.html
http://www.wyspianski.mnw.art.pl/en.html
http://www.krakow-info.com/witraz.htm
http://www.krakowtravelguide.com/basilica-of-st-francis-of-assisi

Andrzej Czarnacki (1968 - Current)

Andrzej Czarnacki (1968 - Current)

Studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and Gdansk under Mieczyslaw Olszewski and Jerzy Nowosielski.  

From 1995-2001 he taught painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Krakow.

Czarnacki's art has a subtle philosophical appeal: Removing acts and objects from their accustomed environment, Czarnacki's interest isn’t merely the difference he presents, but rather how the objects now stimulate the human psyche; how the difference affects the cognitive process.  However, he is careful in his presentation which attempts to strike a new aesthetic balance. Similarly, his paintings appear as biomorphic forms calling forth scientific ideas abstracted from neurons and synapses caught within the tensions and the workings of cognition.