Marek Szwarc (9 May 1892 – 28 December 1958) was a painter and sculptor associated with the
School of Paris
The School of Paris (french: École de Paris) refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century.
The School of Paris was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importance ...
(École de Paris), as well as with the Yiddish cultural avant-garde movement in Poland ''
Yung-yidish Yung-yidish, also spelled Jung Idysz, was the first Jewish avant-garde artistic and literary group in Poland, active in Łódź in 1918–1921. The members exhibited in Poland and abroad and published an eponymous journal, as well as other literary ...
''.
Early years
Marek Szwarc was born in
Zgierz
Zgierz is a city in central Poland, located just to the north of Łódź, and part of the metropolitan area centered on that city. As of 2021 it had a population of 54,974.
Zgierz is situated in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999); previousl ...
,
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 ...
, on 9 May 1892, the youngest of ten sons.
His eldest brother was Polish-Portuguese mining engineer and historian
Samuel Schwarz.
Their father Isucher Moshe Szwarc (1859–1939) was an
Orthodox Jew
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...
heavily involved in Zgierz's Jewish community and the late
Haskalah
The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Euro ...
movement.
Isucher was a fervent
Zionist
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
, participating in the
First Zionist Congress
The First Zionist Congress ( he, הקונגרס הציוני הראשון) was the inaugural congress of the Zionist Organization (ZO) held in Basel (Basle), from August 29 to August 31, 1897. 208 delegates and 26 press correspondents attende ...
and subsequent congresses.
From 1910 to 1914, Marek lived and studied art at the
École des Beaux Arts
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région ...
in Paris. He boarded at ''
la Ruche'' together with
Soutine,
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...
,
Modigliani and Kremegne, and together with Tchaikov and Lichtenstein inaugurated the first
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
art journal ''Makhmadim'' (Precious Ones). In 1913 he exhibited his first sculpture, ''Eve'', in the
Salon d'Automne
The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The ...
.
Between 1914 and 1917, Szwarc traveled through the Russian Empire, spending time in Odessa and Kiev, and working in the Jewish literary circle of
Mendele Moykher-Sforim
Mendele Mocher Sforim ( yi, , he, מנדלי מוכר ספרים, also known as Moykher, Sfarim; lit. "Mendele the book peddler"; January 2, 1836, Kapyl – December 8, 1917 .S. Odessa), born Sholem Yankev Abramovich ( yi, , russian: Сол ...
,
Ahad Ha-Am
Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg (18 August 1856 – 2 January 1927), primarily known by his Hebrew name and pen name Ahad Ha'am ( he, אחד העם, lit. 'one of the people', Genesis 26:10), was a Hebrew essayist, and one of the foremost pre-state Zi ...
, and
Ḥayim Naḥman Bialik. In 1918 he founded – together with Moyshe Broderzon and a group of visual artists centered around Yitskhok Broyner and Yankl Adler – the Yung-yidish, the first Yiddish artistic avant-garde group in Poland.
During the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
Szwarc returned to Poland. In 1919 he met and married his wife, Guina, a writer, and together they returned to Paris after the war. Until the
Second World War
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 ...
, Szwarc lived in Paris and his paintings and sculptures were bought by collectors in Germany, Poland, the United States, and by several museums. It was during this period between the wars that he produced some of his most outstanding and original work in hammered copper, exhibited in the
Salon des Tuileries The Salon des Tuileries was an annual art exhibition for painting and sculpture, created June 14, 1923, co-founded by painters Albert Besnard and Bessie Davidson, sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, architect Auguste Perret, and others.
The first year's ex ...
and the subject of a monograph by the celebrated art critic
Louis Vauxcelles
Louis Vauxcelles (born Louis Meyer; 1 January 187021 July 1943) was a French art critic. He is credited with coining the terms '' Fauvism'' (1905) and ''Cubism'' (1908). He used several pseudonyms in various publications: Pinturrichio, Vasari, ...
. Vauxcelles writes of Szwarc:
"By virtue of its poetic concepts, by its firm and generous execution, by the sense of its cadenced dispositions, by the sharp graphics written in view of the material and which commands this very material, it is apparent that Marek Szwarc is in harmony with the most audacious innovators of our times, who seek him out and see him as a maître".
In 1922 to 1923 Szwarc contributed to the Berlin and Warsaw based avant-garde Yiddish Journal ''Albatros'' (אלבאַטראָס), edited by poet and publicist
Uri Zvi Greenberg
Uri Zvi Greenberg ( he, אוּרִי צְבִי גְּרִינְבֵּרְג; September 22, 1896 – May 8, 1981; also spelled Uri Zvi Grinberg) was an acclaimed Modern Hebrew poetry, Israeli poet, journalist and politician who wrote in Yiddish ...
.
Szwarc participated in the important 1922 Düsseldorf Congress of the International Union of Progressive Artists, where signed its founding proclamation alongside
Jankel Adler
Jankel Adler (born Jankiel Jakub Adler; 26 July 1895 – 25 April 1949) was a Polish Jewish painter and printmaking, printmaker.
Biography
Jankiel Jakub Adler was born as the seventh of ten children in Tuszyn, a suburb of Łódź. In 1912 he be ...
, and
Stanislaw Kubicki, as reprasentatives of the Polish Avant-Garde.
Later years
When
Poland fell in 1939, Szwarc volunteered for the
Polish army
The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stret ...
in exile and after the
occupation of France
The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...
he escaped with the Polish army to
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, while his family fled via
Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
to England. It was during this period (1940–1943) that he drew a series of
pen and ink
A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity whic ...
drawings
Drawing is a form of Visual arts, visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, ...
depicting the daily life of his fellow soldiers.
After the war he returned to Paris with his wife and daughter,
Tereska Torrès
Tereska Torrès (born Tereska Szwarc; 3 September 192020 September 2012) was a French writer known for the 1950 book '' Women's Barracks'', the first "original paperback bestseller." In 2008 historians credited the republished book as the first p ...
who had served in the
Free French Forces
__NOTOC__
The French Liberation Army (french: Armée française de la Libération or AFL) was the reunified French Army that arose from the merging of the Armée d'Afrique with the prior Free French Forces (french: Forces françaises libres, l ...
of General
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
in London. She published two books dealing in large part with the life of her father. After the war Marek Szwarc devoted most of his time to sculpting in
stone
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
and wood and casting in
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
. Some of these works have been donated to the
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme
The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme or mahJ (English: "Museum of Jewish Art and History") is the largest French museum of Jewish art and history. It is located in the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan in the Le Marais, Marais district in Paris.
The ...
in Paris.
Death
Marek Szwarc died suddenly at the age of 66, in Paris. His wife, Guina died in Paris in 1973. In 2010 the French publishing house ressouvenances.fr brought out an edition of Szwarc's memoirs, which he dictated to his wife Eugenia (Guina) Markowa in 1954 titled ''Marek Szwarc: Memoires entre deux mondes''.
Works and exhibitions
Szwarc's work, broadly identified in style with the
École de Paris
The School of Paris (french: École de Paris) refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century.
The School of Paris was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importance ...
, was frequently but not exclusively concerned with
biblical
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
themes from the
Old
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
*Old, Baranya, Hungary
*Old, Northamptonshire, England
*Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...
and
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
. The latter
motifs coming into play after his conversion to
Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in 1919. His identity as a
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
, however, never wavered, as is evidenced in his article, ''The National Element in Jewish Art'', published in a
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
literary journal in
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 ...
in 1925.
He exhibited in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, France, Canada,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
,
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 several sculptures were bought by the French government.
The artist's works are on display in museums, public halls, places of worship, and private collections in
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 ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, Montreal,
Caracas
Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...
, the United States, and England.
See also
*
Tereska Torrès
Tereska Torrès (born Tereska Szwarc; 3 September 192020 September 2012) was a French writer known for the 1950 book '' Women's Barracks'', the first "original paperback bestseller." In 2008 historians credited the republished book as the first p ...
*
Gabriel Levin
References
External links
*
Nadine Nieszawer, Ecole de ParisOtto Schneid papers, correspondence with Marek Szwarc and essays by Schneid and Ludwig Lewisohn.Works by Marek Szwarc in the collection of the Musee d'art et d'Histoire du Judaisme in Paris.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Szwarc, Marek
1892 births
1958 deaths
20th-century Polish painters
20th-century Polish male artists
20th-century sculptors
People from Zgierz
Polish painters of Jewish descent
Polish sculptors
Polish male sculptors
Jewish sculptors
Modern painters
Polish male painters
Polish military personnel of World War II