Hilary Krzysztofiak (born 28 October 1926 in
Szopienice
Szopienice-Burowiec () is a district of Katowice, Poland, located in the north-eastern part of the city. It has an area of 8.47 km2 and in 2007 had 17,139 inhabitants.
The area of a district encompasses two historically important settlements ...
, now a part of
Katowice
Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...
, died 30 September 1979 in
Falls Church
Falls Church is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,658. Falls Church is included in the Washington metropolitan area.
Taking its name from The Falls Church, an 18th-century Churc ...
, Virginia near Washington) was a Polish painter, graphic artist and set designer.
Young years and education
Hilary was a son of Jan Krzysztofiak and Maria née Helwig. His mother was killed by the Germans in 1942 at
Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
during the
German occupation of Poland
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
(
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
). During the war, he worked in the Uthemann's steelworks in Szopienice as an apprentice carpenter and as a student for 3 years of evening school (Abendschule für Bildende Künste), finishing in 1943. After the war he left for
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
where in 1945-1946 he went to art college. From January 1946, he worked as an extra in the Polish Theatre (Teatr Polski) in the first post-war production of
Juliusz Słowacki
Juliusz Słowacki (; french: Jules Slowacki; 4 September 1809 – 3 April 1849) was a Polish Romantic poet. He is considered one of the "Three Bards" of Polish literature — a major figure in the Polish Romantic period, and the father of mode ...
’s ''Lilla Weneda''. In the same year, he produced his first theatre decorations for the production of ''
The Story of Doctor Dolittle
''The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts'' (1920), written and illustrated by the British author Hugh Lofting, is the first of his Doctor Dolittle books, a series ...
'' in the Puppet Theatre in Warsaw.
In September 1946, he was accepted in the State School of Fine Arts (later: Academy of Fine Arts) where he studied block design, architectural painting, studies of nature, decorative and wall painting, technology, painting and conceptual design. As a student he worked for The Academic Theatre. In 1950-1951, Krzysztofiak started to co-operate with the literary-political magazine ''Po prostu'' where he published (among others) articles written with Lech Emfazy Stefański ("New Way of Visual Arts", 1950, no. 13, and "Talks of Realism on Visual Arts", 1950, no 3), criticized later at the Congress of Young Activists from Schools of Fine Arts. In spring 1951 he abandoned studies at the Academy in the course of working on his diploma (picture "Waryński before the Jury").
Poland
After leaving the Academy, Krzysztofiak went to
Szklarska Poręba
Szklarska Poręba (german: Schreiberhau) is a town in Jelenia Góra County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. The town has a population of around 6,500. It is a popular ski resort.
An important regional and national centre fo ...
in the
Karkonosze Mountains where he lived for four years, painting and working in various temporary positions not connected with art. In 1953, he joined other artists in Group ST-53.
It was seen as a symbol of the artist's rebellion in the post-Stalin era, a sign of the newly organized ''avant-garde''. The main purpose of the Group was self-education based on
Władysław Strzemiński
Władysław Strzemiński (21 November 1893 – 26 December 1952) was a Polish avant-garde painter of international renown.
Life and work
Strzemiński was born in Minsk to an ethnic Polish family. In 1914, he graduated from the Military School o ...
’s "Theory of Seeing". The first public exhibition of the Group opened on 13 May 1956 in the Silesian Institute in Stalinogród (Stalin City), now
Katowice
Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...
. In 1955, Krzysztofiak returned to Warsaw and stayed at a flat in Tarczyńska 11 with L. E. Stefański, who in there ran together with
Miron Białoszewski
Miron Białoszewski (; born 30 June 1922, Warsaw; died 17 June 1983, Warsaw) was a Polish poet, novelist, playwright and actor.
Biography
Białoszewski studied linguistics at the clandestine courses of the University of Warsaw during the Germ ...
the famous Theatre at Tarczyńska. In July–September 1955, he took part in the legendary National Exhibition of Young Artists under the banner: “Against War, against Fascism”, organized in the building of
Warsaw Arsenal
Warsaw Arsenal ( pl, Arsenał Królewski w Warszawie) is a building of a military arsenal in the Muranów neighbourhood of the borough of Śródmieście in Warsaw, Poland. It is located at Długa street, in the proximity of the Warsaw's Old ...
. Krzysztofiak proposed three works and one was accepted: "Still Life", later known as "The Jaw". At the end of 1955, he started working as a graphic editor for ''Po prostu'' where he worked until the magazine was shut down in 1957. On 27 July 1956, Krzysztofiak's first individual exhibition opened in the Warsaw discussion club Po prostu. In 1957, Krzysztofiak made a design for the Station of the Passion for the church in
Nowa Huta
Nowa Huta (, literally "The New Steel Mill") is the easternmost district of Kraków, Poland. With more than 200,000 inhabitants, it is one of the most populous areas of the city. Until 1990, the neighbouring districts were considered expansions o ...
but it was never realized.
At the end of 1958, Krzysztofiak met his future wife, Krystyna Miłotworska, a journalist and later editor with
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...
. At the beginning of 1960, he became graphic editor of the biweekly ''Ruch Muzyczny'' and designed the magazine's covers. He designed decorations for three one-act plays directed by
Krystyna Meissner
Krystyna Meissner (19 June 1933 – 20 February 2022) was a Polish theatre director. She founded two festivals and her awards include the Goethe Medal. She was recognised for popularising German plays and for introducing theatrical work from Eas ...
within her director's workshop; the first night was 21 June 1961, in Ateneum Theatre in Warsaw. The plays were
Michel de Ghelderode
Michel de Ghelderode (born Adémar Adolphe Louis Martens, 3 April 1898 – 1 April 1962) was an avant-garde Belgian dramatist, from Flanders, who spoke and wrote in French. His works often deal with the extremes of human experience, from death an ...
’s ''Escurial'',
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanne ...
’s ''
The Dumb Waiter
''The Dumb Waiter'' is a one-act play by Harold Pinter written in 1957.
"Small but perfectly formed, ''The Dumb Waiter'' might be considered the best of Harold Pinter's early plays, more consistent than ''The Birthday Party'' and sharper tha ...
'' and
Sławomir Mrożek
Sławomir Mrożek (29 June 1930 – 15 August 2013) was a Polish dramatist, writer and cartoonist.
Mrożek joined the Polish United Workers' Party during the reign of Stalinism in the People's Republic of Poland, and made a living as a politica ...
’s ''At Sea''. In September 1963, Krzysztofiak took part in the First International Koszalin Open Air Workshop organized in Poland for the first time. In 1964, he worked for theatres in Opole and Białystok designing decorations for plays directed by L. E. Stefański and K. Meissner. In that time he painted the series of sixteen pictures called "Białystok Totems". In August 1965, together with 39 artists from Poland and abroad, Krzysztofiak took part in the First Biennial of Space Forms in Elbląg. The metal space forms made during the biennial were situated in the town.
Abroad
Krzysztofiak first went abroad to Paris in 1966. There he made contacts with Polish emigrants, among them artists and writers such as Sławomir Mrożek and his wife Maria Obremba (a painter),
Zbigniew Herbert
Zbigniew Herbert (; 29 October 1924 – 28 July 1998) was a Polish poet, essayist, drama writer and moralist. He is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers. While he was first published in the 1950s (a volume title ...
, Jan Lebenstein, as well as with the Literary Institute “Kultura”. During his stay in France, he exhibited his works in Paris at the Galerie Desbrières and in Marseilles at the Galerie Jouvens. In May 1968, Krzysztofiak went to the Netherlands to prepare an exhibition in Galerie De Graaf in Schiedam where he presented unknown pictures sent from Poland by his wife. He then moved to
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
where his wife joined him in December. In 1969, Krzysztofiak exhibited his paintings and worked as a stage designer; among others he made decorations for Mrożek's play ''The Turkey'' which had its first night on 10 May 1969 in the theatre in
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
. That summer, together with his wife who had found work for
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...
, they moved to
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
. After the first radio programme presented by Krystyna Miłotworska, the authorities in Warsaw decided to enter and liquidate Hilary's studio in Warsaw. Everything, including all the paintings apart from three works found many years later, was destroyed. Paintings were thrown into rubbish bins and works on paper were used for fire in roof repairs.
In spring 1971, Krzysztofiak went for the first time to the United States where he applied for American citizenship, which he was granted in 1977. He changed his name to Christopher Hilary. His first American exhibition took place a year later in
South Orange
South Orange, officially the Township of South Orange Village, is a suburban township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the village's population was 16,198, reflecting a decline of 766 (4.5%) fro ...
, New Jersey. From the beginning of the 1970s, the artist continued his artistic creativity in Germany and the USA. He took part in many collective exhibitions and had several individual ones. In 1976, he was awarded the New York Alfred
Jurzykowski Prize
The Alfred Jurzykowski Prize is an annual prize awarded by the Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation in New York City for the translation of Polish language, Polish works into English language, English. Its recipients have included such writers as Witold L ...
. He died suddenly in 1979, in Falls Church near Washington when he was 53.
Recognition
In the
Polish People's Republic
The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...
, Hilary was sentenced to non-existence. To bring back his person to the history of post-war Polish art
National Museum in Warsaw
The National Museum in Warsaw ( pl, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie), popularly abbreviated as MNW, is a national museum in Warsaw, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in the capital. It comprises a rich collection of ancient art (Egy ...
organized a retrospective exhibition in the
Zachęta
The Zachęta National Gallery of Art (Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, ...
Gallery in March 1997. The exhibition was also presented in the
Silesian Museum
Silesian Museum in Katowice ( pl, Muzeum Śląskie w Katowicach) is a museum in the City of Katowice, Poland.
History
The museum was founded in 1929 by the Silesian Sejm, while the region was recovering from the Silesian Uprisings. In the inte ...
in Katowice, in the Bunkier Sztuki Gallery in Kraków and in the Museum of Silesian Piasts in
Brzeg
Brzeg (; Latin: ''Alta Ripa'', German: ''Brieg'', Silesian German: ''Brigg'', , ) is a town in southwestern Poland with 34,778 inhabitants (December 2021) and the capital of Brzeg County. It is situated in Silesia in the Opole Voivodeship on the ...
.
At the beginning of 2009, in Katowice, the square at General Haller's Street and Westerplatte Defenders Street was given the name of Hilary Krzysztofiak. In October 2010,
Kazimierz Kutz
Kazimierz Julian Kutz (16 February 1929 – 18 December 2018) was a Polish film director, author, journalist and politician, one of the representatives of the Polish Film School and a deputy speaker of the Senate of Poland.
Biography
Kazimierz ...
uncovered a memorial plate on the house where Krzysztofiak was born.
Krzysztofiak's paintings are in museums and private collections in Europe and in the USA.
Selected exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
* 1956: Warsaw, "Po prostu" Discussion Salon
* 1963, 1965: Warsaw, "Krzywe Koło" Gallery
* 1966: Paris, Galerie Debrères
* 1968: Schiedam (Holandia), Galerij Simone de Graaf
* 1969: Düsseldorf, Galerie Hekuba
* 1972: South Orange (New Jersey, USA), Seton Hall University Student Art Gallery
* 1978: Cambridge (USA), BAAK Gallery
* 1979: Waszyngton, Franz Bader Gallery
* 1982: Paris, Galerie Lambert
* 1991: Warsaw, Galeria Kordegarda
* 1995: Regensburg (Germany), Löschenkohl-Palais
* 1997: Warsaw, Zachęta (retrospective)
Group exhibitions
* 1955: Warsaw, "Against War, against Fascism", Warsaw Arsenal
* 1956/1957: Warsaw, "Krzywe Koło" Gallery – exhibition of Group St-53
* 1959: Warsaw, Zachęta Gallery, 3rd Exhibition of Modern Art
* 1961/1962: Warsaw, National Museum – "Polish Fine Arts during the Fifteen Years of Polish People’s Republic"
* 1967: Paris, Galerie Lambert
* 1972: Munich, Galerie Christoph Dürr
* 1978: Washington, Franz Bader Gallery – "New Faces 1978"
* 1992: Warsaw, Zachęta Gallery – "The Circle of the Arsenal"
References
Selected bibliography
* ''Hilary (Hilary Krzysztofiak 1926–1979). Malarstwo i rysunek'',
onografia oprac. H. Kotkowska-Bareja, E. Zawistowska, Warszawa 1997
* A. Grodzicki, ''Theatre in Modern Poland'', Warszawa 1963
* ''Wielka encyklopedia malarstwa polskiego'', preface by J. K. Ostrowski, ed. by A. Górska, Kraków 2011
* J. Czapski, ''Przez morze przepłynął'', Kultura 1980 nr 1–2(388–389)
* H. Krzysztofiak, ''Nieukończona autobiografia'', Zapis 1981 nr 20
* B. Stanisławczyk, ''Po prostu nikt'', Gazeta Wyborcza, 9.10.1991
* J. Zieliński, ''Hilary: obraz albo świat cały'', Odra 1992 nr 5
Films about Hilary
* ''Hilary Krzysztofiak'', S. Kubiak (film director), Polish Television 1993
* ''Niedokończony autoportret'', U. Dubowska (film director), Polish Television 1998
''Hilary z budki Kanolda'', S. Kubiak (film director), Polish Television 2001
External links
Hilary Krzysztofiak’s official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krzysztofiak, Hilary
1926 births
1979 deaths
20th-century Polish painters
20th-century Polish male artists
People from Katowice
Polish male painters