Stanisław Zagajewski (c. 1927 – 4 April 2008 in

Włocławek Włocławek (; or ''Alt Lesle'', Yiddish: וולאָצלאַוועק, romanized: ''Vlatzlavek'') is a city in the Kuyavian–Pomeranian Voivodeship in central Poland along the Vistula River, bordered by the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park ...

) was a Polish

self-taught Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning, self-study and self-teaching) is the practice of education without the guidance of schoolmasters (i.e., teachers, professors, institutions). Overview Autodi ...

sculptor. Zagajewski was abandoned in winter 1929 on the doorstep of St. Barbara Church in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, so his date of birth as well as his name and surname were assigned to him. He grew up in an orphanage and never finished primary school. He worked i.a. as a cook, gardener, bookbinder, tailor and construction worker helping in rebuilding Warsaw till 1952. Since 1963 he lived in

devoting himself to sculpting. During his cooperation with Cepelia (a state company purchasing folk art objects from craftsmanship cooperatives) he learned how to fire ceramics. His clay sculptures have very decorative forms and surprising compositions. He started with carving figures of birds, then fantastic creatures, and later focused on sculpting multi-element altars full of angels and demons. He was aware of his talent and often compared himself to Michelangelo. He had many individual exhibitions and his sculptures are in private and museum collections, for example in the Collection de l’art brut in Lausanne. Over 120 exhibits are displayed in the Museum of the Kuyavian and Dobrzyń Region in Włocławek. However, despite notability Zagajewski lived and created in very difficult conditions. Several documentaries were shot about Zagajewski, including one in 2006.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zagajewski, Stanislaw 1920s births 2008 deaths Artists from Warsaw 20th-century Polish sculptors Polish male sculptors Polish outsider artists Recipients of the Oskar Kolberg Prize