Jozef Potepa (1915 - 1999), Soldier, 1935

Biography
Studied between 1931 and 1935 at the State School of Wood Industry in Zakopane. He graduated in 1939 from the Municipal School of Decorative Arts and Painting in Warsaw. In 1945, he began his studies at the Faculty of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow in the studio of Professor Xawery Dunikowski. He graduated in 1948 and began teaching at the Sculpture Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow in 1947, which he continued until 1986. In 1977 he was awarded the rank of associate professor. He practiced monumental, architectural sculpture. Among his works were the Tadeusz Kosciuszko Monument in Sanok (1962), the Gratitude Monument in Bilgoraj (1966), the Monument to the Fallen in World War II in Belzec, the Wincenty Witos Monument in Tarnow. He died in 1999.