Stanisław Fijałkowski, UNTITLED

11.30 x 8.50 cm - computer graphics, paper
signed in lead below the print, left: e.a., right: S. Fijałkowski



Stanisław Fijałkowski (Zdołbunow, Volhynia, 1922 – Łódź, 2020) was held in forced labor in Königsberg from 1944 to 1945. From 1946 to 1951, he studied at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Łódź under the guidance of Władysław Strzemiński, Stefan Wegner, and Ludwik Tyrowicz, from whom he received his diploma. From 1947 to 1993, he taught at his alma mater, becoming a professor in 1983. He served as vice-rector and dean of the Faculty of Graphic Arts. He also lectured abroad: in Mons (1978, 1982), Giessen (1989–1990), and Marburg (1990). He served as vice president of the International Association of Woodcut Artists XYLON in Switzerland and as chairman of the organization’s Polish Section. He is a member of the foreign Academies of Arts and Sciences in Salzburg and Brussels. He is the recipient of the 1971 Cyprian Norwid Art Critics’ Award, the 1990 Jan Cybis Award, and many other honors. He was the first person in Poland to translate texts by Wassily Kandinsky (“Point and Line to Plane” and “On Spirituality in Art”), both of which were published in print, as well as Kazimir Malevich’s “The Non-Objective World.” Fijałkowski’s painting is based on a modest repertoire of abstract symbols and a limited color palette. His compositions, most of which suggest landscape views or, more broadly, spatial perspectives, are constructed as if with single brushstrokes. Every detail takes on significance; every nuance of color or texture is discernible. Characteristic shapes and motifs recur in various configurations throughout the artist’s works, like words from which he crafts a different story each time. The paintings usually bear poetic titles, often veering into the grotesque or surreal. These traits combine to form an extraordinary, intriguing, and autonomous artistic phenomenon. Since the early 1960s, Fijałkowski’s paintings have been accompanied by black-and-white prints, mainly linocuts and woodcuts, with occasional lithographs.