Roman Owidzki
“My first artistic creations which directed me towards new forms of expression were created lying on the cold floor of an internment camp(...). I remember one of the German officers, who was patrolling the camp, was a painter. He sometimes came by to see what I was working on(...)while looking at my works he only sighed and shook his head, murmuring ‘expressioniusmus’. That's how my skill started"
Roman Owidzki was born in 1912 in Ostrowy, Poland and died in 2009 in Warsaw, Poland. He studied painting at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. After the Second World War, he taught at his alma mater in the departments of painting and graphic design. His work always focused on the interplay of the different elements and the harmony of forms.
His work during the 1950s and 1960s can be characterised as avant-garde and marked by geometric abstraction, later evolving into structuralism up until the 1970s. He was the co-founder of the Foksal Gallery in Warsaw. His works were shown in solo and group shows in Poland and abroad, and he was a recipient of the Jan Cybis Prize (2007) and the Cyprian Kamil Norwid Prize (2006). His works are in the collection of National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Fine Arts Museum in Łódź, Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and in numerous private collections.
mixed media on canvas, 81 x 65 cm