Franciszek Starowieyski

Franciszek Starowieyski (1930, Bratkówka near Krosno - 2009, Warsaw) was one of the most original Polish graphic artists and painters - a co-creator of the Polish School of Posters, and also a draughtsman, stage designer and performer. He studied painting at the Academies of Fine Arts in Kraków and Warsaw; he designed over 300 posters, mainly for film and theatre. He also worked under the pseudonym „Jan Byk”, and from 1970 - giving expression to his fondness for the Baroque - he dated all his works 300 years back.

Starowieyski's work is characterised by Baroque expression, grotesque and Surrealism and a constant fascination with the human body, which he monumentalised and deformed, composing it into enigmatic, sensual pictures with an aura of transience. He drew on the Baroque, Mannerism, Art Nouveau and calligraphy, combining realism with Surrealism and sensuality with vanitas. From 1980 he realised his spectacular „Theatres of Drawing” - happenings lasting several days, during which, as a painter-actor, he created compositions several metres in size before the eyes of the public, working with a nude model and beginning each work by drawing a circle „with a full hand”.

Starowieyski was repeatedly awarded, including the Grand Prix of the São Paulo Biennale of Contemporary Art (1973), the Grand Prix for a film poster in Cannes (1974) and the Grand Prix of the festival in Paris (1975). He had over 200 exhibitions in Poland and abroad, including a solo presentation at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1985); he collaborated with galleries in New York, Rome and Paris, and belonged to the Alliance Graphique International. He was also a connoisseur and collector of old art and a colourful raconteur.