Color lithograph, dimensions: 86 x 60 cm
Hand signature
Witold Damasiewicz was born in 1919 in Wadowice, and died in 1996 in Cracow. In 1937, he began studying at the Faculty of Polish Philology at Jagiellonian University. He defended his diploma in 1948. Beginning in 1945, he studied concurrently at the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow under Zbigniew Pronaszko. He also attended a course in mural painting led by Waclaw Taranczewski. During his studies, he belonged to the Self-education Group of the Union of Polish Academic Youth, founded by Andrzej Wróblewski, which brought together supporters of realistic, socially engaged art. In 1952, he defended his diploma. After graduation, he joined the Union of Polish Artists.
Between 1950 and 1954, he took a job at his alma mater, taking a position as an assistant in the studio of Zygmunt Radnicki. He then worked as an art aspirant at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. Later, from 1958, he taught drawing and painting at the Cracow High School of Fine Arts. In 1955 Witold Damasiewicz took part in the National Exhibition of Young Visual Arts "Against War, Against Fascism" at the Arsenal in Warsaw. Since then, his work has been associated with expressionism oscillating around the issue of human existence.
Since 1959, the artist was a member of the MARG group. Damasiewicz's work and teaching skills were appreciated by Józef Kluza, director of the State High School of Fine Arts in Cracow, who hired the artist as a teacher of painting and drawing in 1958. He retired in 1980.
The artist's work is very diverse. In the 1950s, the characteristic motif of his painting was the human figure, often depicted in a caricatured manner (e.g. the works "Rest", "Creature"). In subsequent years, the artist painted torsos and heads, often subjected to deformation. The Dictionary of Polish Painters reads: "in the picture space he painted fragments of human bodies or unidentifiable objects and surrounded them with abstract color patches". Then, in the 1960s, he created abstract works, devoid of existential realist overtones, but with a strong expressive charge (such as "Psalm VI" or the icon-referencing "Swider"). He also painted symmetrical compositions. The painter received several awards, including the Gold Medal of the Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Cracow (1976) and the Jan Cybis Award (1976).
Witold Damasiewicz's works can be found in many private and public collections around the world, including those of the Ministry of Culture and Art, the National Museum in Cracow and Poznan, the District Museum in Torun and the Karolyi Foundation Gallery in Vence.
