Xawery Dunikowski created his first sculptures at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and produced his most interesting and important works during the first three decades of the last century. His achievements include some of the most outstanding works of Polish Symbolism. They are distinctive for their Neo-Romantic pathos, a modeling akin to that of the Expressionists, a synthesis of form. They include sculptures like MACIERZYNSTWO / MOTHERHOOD, SKUPIENIE / CONCENTRATION, FATUM / FATE, TCHNIENIE I / INSPIRATION I, TCHNIENIE II / INSPIRATION II, RAPSOD BOHATERSKI / HEROIC RHAPSODY, GROBOWIEC BOLESLAWA SMIALEGO / THE TOMB OF BOLESLAUS THE BOLD, DANTE, and the series KOBIETY BRZEMIENNE / PREGNANT WOMEN. Dunikowski is also responsible for sculptural portraits of Mickiewicz, Solski, Friedman, Kaminski, Maczynski, Szczyglinski, the multi-figure group ADORACJA / ADORATION for the Jesuit Church in Krakow, and the Krakow monument of Jozef Dietel, which is considered to be one of the most interesting statues in all of European art. Between 1925 and 1929, inspired by Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz, an architect responsible for the restoration and conservation of historical monuments within the Wawel Castle complex, Dunikowski began working on a cycle of sculptures titled GLOWY WAWELSKIE / WAWEL HEADS, referencing the Renaissance era busts in the ceiling of the castle's Sala Poselska (Deputies' Hall). Dunikowski's WAWEL HEADS were portraits of the sculptor's contemporaries, primarily representatives of the artistic community. The artist continued working on this series after World War II, producing these polychrome sculptures from plaster and wood. After 1945 the artist also created numerous statues and sculptures whose simple forms underlined the links between his works and architecture. During this period Dunikowski produced a number of large scale public monuments, including the Revolutionary Effort monument on the Hill of St. Anna, the Monument to the Liberation of the Region of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, and the sculptural series BABY NIEBOROWSKIE / WOMEN OF NIEBOROW.
The works of Xawery Dunikowski are included in the collections of branches of the National Museum in Warsaw, Krakow and Wroclaw, and of the Polish Armed Forces Museum in Warsaw. Between the two world wars, the artist donated many of his works to the Wawel Castle Collection. The exhibition XAWERY DUNIKOWSKI - DZIELA W ZBIORACH WAWELSKICH / XAWERY DUNIKOWSKI - WORKS IN THE WAWEL CASTLE COLLECTION consists sculptures by the artist from the Wawel Collection, all of which very rarely venture out of the castle. For this public presentation they have been divided into four thematic groups: "Okres symboliczny" / "The Symbolic Period," "W kregu Jezuitow" / "Within the Jesuit Circle," "Portrety" / "Portraits" and "Glowy wawelskie" / "Wawel Heads." The pieces on view include FATUM / FATE, KOBIETY BRZEMIENNE / PREGNANT WOMEN, sculpted portraits of Frederick Chopin, painter Henryk Szczyglinski and architect Franciszek Maczynski, designer of the Jesuit Church in Krakow.
Sculptor and painter Xawery Dunikowski (1875-1964) was one of Poland's most outstanding artists of the 20th century. For many years he retained a strong link to the city of Krakow, where he was born, studied, lived and worked. When the artist was twelve, his parents moved from Krakow to Warsaw. Upon graduating from technical school, he studied in the private sculpture studios of Boleslaw Syrewicz (at the Royal Castle) and Leon Wasilkowski. At the age of twenty-one, he decided to study sculpture at the post-secondary level. Dunikowski went on to the School of Fine Arts in Krakow, where he studied sculpture under Alfred Daun and painting under Jan Stanislawski. He graduated with honors after only three years. In 1904 Dunikowski became a professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he would teach for six years. In 1910 he moved to Krakow, remaining there almost until the outbreak of World War I. Dunikowski spent the years 1914-20 primarily in Paris, occasionally traveling to London during this period. In 1921 he took over as head of the faculty of sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, taking an active part in the artistic life of the city and the country. In April of 1940 the artist was arrested by the Gestapo. In June of the same year he was transported to Auschwitz Concentration Camp where he was assigned number 772. He survived the hardships of the camp for five years and was freed at the time of its liberation. He was seventy years old, a thoroughly spent human being, and gravely ill. After undergoing treatment for one year, he began to create and teach once again. Between 1946 and 1955 Dunikowski lectured at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. In 1955 he became a professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and from 1959 he also assumed a professorship at the State Higher School of the Visual Arts in Wroclaw. He passed away at the age of ninety years and was buried in the Alley of the Meritorious at Powazkowski Cemetery in Warsaw.
Exhibition opening: April 16, 2004, at 5 p.m.
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