Bolesław Biegas (1877–1954) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

and

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

painter and sculptor.

Biography

Biegas was born in

Koziczyn Koziczyn is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Regimin, within Ciechanów County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately north-east of Regimin, north of Ciechanów, and north of Warsaw. References ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and orphaned at a young age. He began studying sculpture in Warsaw in the studio of a local sculptor, Antoni Panasiuk, then studied art under

Konstanty Laszczka Konstanty Laszczka (born 3 September 1865 in Makowiec Duży; died 23 March 1956 in Kraków) was a Polish sculptor, painter, graphic artist, as well as professor and rector (academia), rector of the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Las ...

at the

Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków ( pl, Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Jana Matejki w Krakowie, usually abbreviated to ''ASP''), is a public institution of higher education located in the centre of Kraków, Poland. It is the oldest Pol ...

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

. After being expelled for his sculpture ''The Book of Life'', Biegas moved permanently to Paris, where he briefly attended the ''École des Beaux-Arts'' before beginning his independent artistic activity. From 1900, his works were exhibited in several Salons, including the parisian Galerie des Artistes Modernes and Galerie Arts et Artistes Anglais, and galleries in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

. Biegas also created a series of

style paintings, featuring mythical, monstrous and female chimeras, which symbolised a violent battle of the sexes. Biegas established a small museum for his art in 1950, in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, France, called the Musée Boleslas Biegas. It is located within the

Polish Library in Paris The Polish Library in Paris (french: Bibliothèque Polonaise de Paris, pl, Biblioteka Polska w Paryżu) is a Polish cultural centre of national importance and is closely associated both with the historic Great Emigration of the Polish élite to P ...

in the

4th arrondissement of Paris The 4th arrondissement of Paris (''IVe arrondissement'') is one of the twenty arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''quatrième''. Along with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd arrondissement ...

at 6, Quai d'Orléans. The museum contains his own paintings and sculpture, as well as other Polish artists active from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, including

Olga Boznańska Olga Boznańska (15 April 1865 – 26 October 1940) was a Polish painter of the turn of the 20th century. She was a notable painter in Poland and Europe, and was stylistically associated with the French impressionism, though she rejected this lab ...

and

Tadeusz Makowski Tadeusz Makowski (29 January 1882, Oświęcim - 1 November 1932, Paris) was a Polish painter who worked in France and was associated with the School of Paris. Biography From 1902 to 1906, he studied classical philology at the Jagiellonian Uni ...

. The museum occupies one room in the Polish Library in Paris, which also houses the

Musée Adam Mickiewicz The Adam Mickiewicz Museum (in French: Musée Adam Mickiewicz) is a small museum dedicated to Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855). It is located within the Polish Library in Paris in the 4th arrondissement of Paris at 6, Quai d'Orleans, P ...

and the

Salon Frédéric Chopin The Salon Frédéric Chopin is a small museum dedicated to Frédéric Chopin. It is located within the Polish Library in Paris - Bibliothèque polonaise de Paris - in the 4th arrondissement of Paris at 6, Quai d'Orléans, Paris, France. Guided vis ...

. Guided visits are available Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings by prior appointment; an admission fee is charged.

References

External links

Boleslaw Biegas www.biegas.pl
*
Bibliothèque Polonaise de Paris

Biography

See also

References

External links

Further reading