Piotr Tadeusz Potworowski (14 June 189824 April 1962) was a Polish abstract and figurative painter who lived and exhibited in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. During his seven years in Paris he became personally acquainted with

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Pierre Bonnard Pierre Bonnard (; 3 October 186723 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. A founding member of the Post-Impressionist gr ...

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

Constantin Brâncuși Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian sculptor, painter, and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century and a pioneer of modernism ...

and attended for a short time

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

's studio. In 1943 he settled in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

where he joined the

London Group The London Group is a society based in London, England, created to offer additional exhibiting opportunities to artists besides the Royal Academy of Arts. Formed in 1913, it is one of the oldest artist-led organisations in the world. It was form ...

and exhibited regularly. In 1948 he was invited to work in the Bath School of Art, in order to bring his experience of twenties Paris to an English art world untouched by the deep changes taking place on the continent. His much-needed European influence on painting, specifically abstraction, was acknowledged by contemporaries including

Peter Lanyon George Peter Lanyon (8 February 1918 – 31 August 1964) was a British painter of landscapes leaning heavily towards abstraction. Lanyon was one of the most important artists to emerge in post-war Britain. Despite his early death at the ag ...

Patrick Heron Patrick Heron (30 January 1920 – 20 March 1999) was a British abstract and figurative artist, critic, writer, and polemicist, who lived in Zennor, Cornwall. Heron was recognised as one of the leading painters of his generation. Influenced ...

Adrian Heath Adrian Paul Heath (born 11 January 1961) is an English football manager and former player. He most recently served as head coach of Major League Soccer club Minnesota United until October 2023. As a player, he is best known for his six season ...

and William Scott. Potworowski's paintings and constructions were considered some of the finest works of British art in the 1950s. In 1958 he was invited to return to Poland to take up the post of Professor of Painting at

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

and in 1960 he was a prize winner at the 30th

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

. He died in Warsaw in 1962. In 1996 a major retrospective exhibition was held at the Polish National Gallery of Contemporary Art in Warsaw consisting of 70 works in oil and 80 sculptures, scenography projects and watercolours.

Life

Piotr Tadeusz Potworowski was born on 14 June 1898, 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 ...

, then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. The family owned an engineering factory and a summer villa on the River Wisła. He was considered a "difficult" child and attended a school for the disturbed. His mother was killed in a sledging accident in 1913 and in August 1914 at the start of the war he and his two brothers were sent for safety to relatives in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. His sketches from that period show interest and talent which was put aside when he volunteered for the Polish Cavalry Brigade, part of the

Russian Army The Russian Ground Forces (), also known as the Russian Army in English, are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces are the protection of the state borders, combat on land, ...

, fighting first the

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

then the

Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...

and finally the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

. After the war in 1920 he studied design in the

Warsaw University of Technology The Warsaw University of Technology () is one of the leading institutes of technology in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. It employs 2,453 teaching faculty, with 357 professors (including 145 titular professors). The student body ...

then in the following year moved to the

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute ...

in Kraków and discovered

French painting French art consists of the visual arts, visual and plastic arts (including French architecture, woodwork, textiles, and ceramics) originating from the geographical area of France. Modern France was the main centre for the European art of the U ...

. In 1924 he travelled to Paris as a member of Komitet Paryski (KP), a group of young painters, and stayed there for seven years immersing himself in avant garde culture of that period. For a short time he joined the studio of Fernand Léger and was a leader in organising the Bal Polonaise which was attended by Picasso, Braque and other artists. In 1927 he spent three months working on a French commercial

schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...

and followed this in 1928 with an exhibition of ships at the Claridge Gallery, London. He married Magdalena Mańkowska in 1929, and he returned to Poland in 1930, where their son Jan was born. They lived near Poznań in Rudki Palace which was owned by his wife's family and in which they hosted, for months on end, fellow artists and officers from his regiment. In 1935 the family moved to Grebanin, a village near the town of

Kępno Kępno is a town in south-central Poland. Kępno is located in the historical Wieluń Land. It lies on the outskirts of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, bordering the historical region of Silesia and the Łódź Voivodeship. As of December 31, 200 ...

in which he initiated a regional museum and commenced a large fresco in the town hall. In 1936 Anusia, his daughter was born. He exhibited frequently in Poland and in 1937 was awarded a silver medal at the International Exhibition of Art and Technology in Paris. He fought in the 1939 campaign and when that collapsed attempted to reach allied forces in

Narvik () is the third-largest List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway, by population. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Narvik (town), town of Narvik. Some of the notable villag ...

. When the fall of France made this impossible he settled in

where he continued to paint and sculpt, and organised an exhibition of Polish-Norwegian Art. In 1941 his family joined him but in September 1943 he was ordered to join the Polish Army in Britain. On arriving in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

in a

Mosquito Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mos ...

, he was told that he was too old for front-line duty and was stationed in London. There he engaged with enthusiasm in the Polish cultural life, was appointed President of the Association of Polish Artists and joined the exclusive

. A number of exhibitions in London led to a position in the

Bath Academy of Art Bath School of Art and Design is an art college in Bath, England, now known separately as the Bath School of Art and the Bath School of Design. It forms part of the Bath Spa University whose main campus is located a few miles from the City at N ...

Corsham Corsham is a historic market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in west Wiltshire, England. It is at the southwestern edge of the Cotswolds, just off the A4 road (England), A4 national route. It is southwest of Swindon, east of ...

, where he significantly influenced the creative thinking of a new wave of British painters such as

, William Scott, and

. Every two years he exhibited in the Gimpel Fils Gallery. In 1958 he was invited to work in Poland. There followed four very intensive years where he not only produced his most powerful paintings but also sculptures and scenography projects. He had his first exhibition at the

National Museum in Poznań The National Museum in Poznań (), Poland, abbreviated MNP, is a state-owned cultural institution and one of the largest museums in Poland. It houses a rich collection of Culture of Poland#Art, Polish painting from the 16th century on, and a coll ...

, 1958, then in National Museums of

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

and

Szczecin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...

. The very good reception of his work contributed to his decision to stay in the country. He exhibited in the

in 1960 receiving a silver medal and also in the Galerie Lacloche, Paris. He died on 24 April 1962, in Warsaw and was buried in the

Powązki Cemetery Powązki Cemetery (; ), also known as Stare Powązki (), is a historic necropolis located in Wola district, in the western part of Warsaw, Poland. It is the most famous cemetery in the city and one of the oldest, having been established in 179 ...

in the Avenue of Merit.

Influence

Kenneth Armitage William Kenneth Armitage (18 July 1916 – 22 January 2002) was a British sculptor known for his semi-abstract bronzes. Life Armitage was born in Leeds on July 18, 1916, the youngest of three children studied at the Leeds College of Art and t ...

, fellow tutor at

, said: "... while we were all individuals before his arrival we must have seemed, thereafter, rather ordinary compared to Piotr's personal approach to everything. He came from an outside world, from a longer time-life span; he brought a foreign flavour and his values and approach were different. Once or twice in a lifetime at just the right moment — somebody else can move into one's own small private world endowed with mysterious authority to push and pull in directions that, without such encouragement, one might only slowly (or even never) take necessary and positive action. Such a one was Peter ... We became close friends".

, fellow tutor at Corsham said: "To this community (of artists at Corsham) he brought a catholic taste and breadth of understanding that can truly be described as cosmopolitan; a quality that was hungrily accepted by men who had been insulated from continental opinions by seven years of war".

Key exhibitions

* 1927:

Salon des Indépendents Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (Pa ...

Grand Palais The (; ), commonly known as the , is a historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris between the Champs-Élysées and the Seine, France. Construction of the began in 1897 following the demolitio ...

, Paris * 1937:

International Exhibition A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition, is a large global exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specific site for a perio ...

, Polish Pavilion, Paris * 1947–1957: annual, Gimpel Fils Gallery, London * 1958

National Museum, Poznań National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

* 1962 Galerie Lacloche, Paris * 1996 National Gallery of Contemporary Art, Warsaw * 2013 Galeria Studio,

Palace of Culture Palace of Culture (, , ''wénhuà gōng'', ) or House of Culture (Polish: ''dom kultury'') is a common name (generic term) for major Club (organization), club-houses (community centres) in the former Soviet Union and the rest of the Eastern bloc ...

, Warsaw

Works in state museums and galleries

Tate St Ives Tate St Ives is an art gallery in St Ives, Cornwall, St Ives, Cornwall, England, exhibiting work by modern British artists with links to the St Ives area. The Tate also took over management of another museum in the town, the Barbara Hepworth Mu ...

Royal West of England Academy The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is Bristol's oldest art gallery, located in Clifton, Bristol, near the junction of Queens Road and Whiteladies Road. Situated in a Grade II* listed building, it hosts five galleries and an exhibition prog ...

Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery Bristol Museum & Art Gallery is a large museum and art gallery in Bristol, England. The museum is situated in Clifton, about from the city centre. As part of Bristol Culture and Creative Industries it is run by the Bristol City Council with no ...

National Museum of Warsaw The National Museum in Warsaw (, 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 (Egyptian, Greek, Roman), counting about 11,000 pieces, an ext ...

* National Museum of Poznań *

National Museum of Kraków National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

* National Museum of Katowice * National Museum of Gdańsk

References

External links