Władysław Jackiewicz

Władysław Jackiewicz (1924, Pabradė in the Vilnius region - 2016, Gdańsk) was a painter and teacher - a legendary professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. He studied at the Faculty of Painting of the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Sopot, where in 1952 he defended his diploma in the studio of Artur Nacht-Samborski. He linked his whole career with his alma mater, passing through all its ranks; in 1969-1981 he served as rector. He was a co-creator of the Gdańsk Group and one of the most important figures of the post-war Pomeranian milieu.

His early works, created under the influence of Nacht-Samborski and Piotr Potworowski, were kept in the stylistics of Colourism. The 1950s were a period of searching - from derealised, vividly coloured landscapes, through Cubism, to abstraction and a Tachiste episode in the 1960s. In time, however, the human body, especially the female one, which he regarded as the most perfect of the shapes created by nature, came to the centre of his work. He showed nudity in a discreet and elegant way, in large-format compositions combining the figure with space and colour (the „Landscapes of the Body” cycle), with a clear inspiration from Modigliani's nudes.

Jackiewicz had several dozen solo exhibitions in Poland and abroad and took part in numerous group exhibitions, including the 43rd Venice Biennale. His works were shown all over the world and are in the collections of the National Museums in Gdańsk, Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław and Łódź. Decorated, among others, with the Gold „Gloria Artis” Medal, he was for generations of students a master and a guide - „il maestro della pittura”.