Dimensions: 48 x 27 x 27 cm
Origin
gift of the artist to the portrayed
collection of the heirs of Irena Orlikowska
Biography
Xawery Dunikowski one of the most prominent Polish sculptors was born in 1875 in Cracow, died in 1964 in Warsaw. He began studying sculpture in 1894 in the Warsaw studio of Boleslaw Syrewicz, and later studied with Leopold Wasilkowski. In 1896-98 he studied sculpture under Alfred Daun at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow. Until 1903, he continued his studies at the Cracow academy under Konstanty Laszczka. In 1902, his first solo exhibition was held at TPSP in Krakow. In 1904-10 he served as a professor of sculpture at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts. Around 1906, he embarked on an artistic journey to the Middle East (Syria, Palestine) and Italy. In 1908, he joined the Society of Polish Artists "Art", with which he had already exhibited since 1903. From 1915 to 1921 he lived in Paris. From 1920 until the outbreak of World War II, he was a professor of sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. Arrested in 1940, he was imprisoned in Auschwitz concentration camp until liberation. From 1946 he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. In 1954 he moved to Warsaw and began teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts, and from 1959 he also held the chair of sculpture at the State School of Fine Arts in Wroclaw. His muse and partner was the artist Sara Lipska (1882-1973), a great interior decorator and designer who worked in Paris. Dunikowski created sculptures in a symbolic spirit, unusual busts and portrait studies, and was also the author of many designs for monumental monuments.
