Jerzy Mierzejewski

Jerzy Mierzejewski (1917, Kraków - 2012, Warsaw) was a painter and teacher, coming from an artistic family: his father Jacek Mierzejewski belonged to the circle of the Formists, and his brother Andrzej was also a painter. He began his studies in 1937 at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, but obtained his diploma - in the studio of Mieczysław Kotarbiński - only in 1956. In the 1930s he became associated with the „Start” Society of Lovers of Artistic Film, and after the war he co-created branches of the Union of Polish Visual Artists and had his first solo exhibition in Łódź (1946).

For a quarter of a century (1950-1975) he taught at the Łódź Film School, where he taught drawing and „the visual arts in film”, and also served as dean of the Faculty of Cinematography, dean of the Faculty of Directing and vice-rector; whole generations of filmmakers were brought up on his theoretical works, including „The Composition of the Film Image” (in 2006 he received an honorary doctorate from this school). In parallel he painted ceaselessly - mainly atmospheric landscapes, studio interiors, portraits of his family and self-portraits; his most important cycles are „The Boat”, „The Studio” and „Gardens”.

Mierzejewski's painterly work, undoubtedly original and distinct from all post-war groupings, long remained in the shadow of his teaching work; he exhibited a great deal abroad, especially in the Netherlands, as well as in the USA, Belgium and Germany. His painterly oeuvre was presented more widely to the public only in 1997 - with a retrospective at the Artist's House in Warsaw, combined with the award of the Jan Cybis Award. In 2004 the National Museum in Warsaw showed an exhibition of the whole Mierzejewski family. He died on 14 June 2012, on the day of the opening of an exhibition devoted to him at the Museum of Cinematography in Łódź.