Marian Szulc (1922–1996)
The Suitor’s Mask, Tadeusz Kantor’s Underground Theater, 1940s
bromide/paper, 16.9 x 21.3 cm, vintage print
signed on the reverse: M. Szulc
Marian Szulc—painter, set designer, photographer. From 1941 to 1943, he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Kraków; in 1945, he took a course in set design at the Studio at the Stary Theater in Kraków (Prof. Pronaszko); 1945–1949 and 1951–1952 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. As a member of the Artists’ Club, he participated in the First Exhibition of Modern Art at the Palace of Art in Kraków, where he presented four paintings and one mobile. From 1950, he was an assistant at the Department of Set Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (Prof. K. Frycz, Prof. A. Stopka). In mid-1968, he left his position at the Academy. The most creative period of his artistic career spanned the years 1956–1960. During this time, he participated in the Exhibition of Young Artists of the Kraków District of the Association of Polish Artists and Designers (1956/1957), in the exhibition Modern Polish Artists (Yugoslavia 1957), in the 2nd National Exhibition of Young Painting, Sculpture, and Graphic Art in Sopot (1958), Young Artists from Kraków (Norway, 1958), the Kraków Art Festival (1959), and the 3rd Exhibition of Modern Art in Warsaw (1959).
He had been taking photographs since 1949. In 1956, he joined the Association of Polish Art Photographers and participated in exhibitions of artistic photography in Sweden (1957), Yugoslavia (1957), Moscow (1957), Nuremberg (1958), Paris, as well as in the 1st International Exhibition of Art Photography in Warsaw (1957) and in regional ZPAF exhibitions in Kraków. Marian Szulc’s works are held in the collections of the National Museums in Kraków, Warsaw, Wrocław, Poznań, and Szczecin; the Museum of Art in Łódź; and the Regional Museums in Bydgoszcz, Radom, Chełm, and Toruń.
