Jerzy Kołacz abstraction around 1950, No. 2

Jerzy Kołacz abstraction around 1950

Very good condition

Technique: canvas oil

Dimensions: length 80 cm, height 70 cm

Jerzy Kołacz (1938−2009) - artist, painter, graphic artist, illustrator

Jerzy Kołacz was born on October 16, 1938 in Czeladź, Silesia. After the war, he and his family moved to Szczecin. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk and the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, which he graduated in 1962 with a diploma in the poster studio of Wojciech Tomaszewski and the painting studio of Wojciech Fangor. After graduation, he actively participated in the life of the Szczecin art community: he co-founded the local branch of the Union of Artists and Designers, was involved in the organization of the Contemporary Painting Festival, worked as a graphic editor at Wydawnictwo Artystyczno-Graficzne (1962-1974), designed posters, and above all painted and exhibited his works both in Poland (Szczecin, Gdańsk, Warsaw, Zielona Góra) and abroad (Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Federal Republic of Germany, Hungary).

In 1978 he emigrated to Sweden and then to Canada. In Toronto, where he spent thirty years of his life, he acted both as an illustrator, publishing in magazines around the world, and as a painter. After 1989, he visited Poland several times, including Szczecin (exhibition "Memory Filters", 2008, Culture and Art Center in Wrocław, Pomeranian Dukes' Castle in Szczecin).

From the very beginning, the artist's artistic work developed in two ways. In painting, he moved towards abstraction, completely devoid of figurative allusions, allusive, rich in texture and extremely sophisticated in color. In the poster, and then in the illustration, he uses a painterly figure, ironic, sometimes blunt, always witty.

His works have been awarded both in Poland and abroad. In recognition of his overall creative activity, he was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

He died on March 22, 2009 in Mexico. He is buried in Toronto. In 2010, on the initiative of the Szczecin-based "Czas Przestrzeń Tożsamość" Association, a Memory Tree was planted at the Central Cemetery, which honored Jerzy Kołacz as a person of merit for Szczecin.