Xawery Dunikowski

Author of sculptural portraits, monumental works, large-format oil paintings and drawings. He started to study sculpture in the Warsaw studios of Bolesław Syrewicz and Leopold Wasilkowski, then from 1896 to 1898 he studied at the School of Fine Art in Krakow, under Alfred Daun and Konstanty Laszczka. He conducted his sculpture studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw  (1904-1914) and the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (1923-1940; 1940-1955). Since 1914 he stayed in London, then in France, where he settled in Paris (1914-1922). At that time he created some of his finest works: Self-portrait (1917-1920) and Bolesław the Bold (1917). From 1940 to 1945 he was a prisoner of the concentration camp in Auschwitz. At that time he created paintings and drawings depicting the interiors of the woodworking workshop in which the sculptor was working, as well as portraits of his fellow-prisoners. Initially he remained under the influence of Konstanty Laszczka, yet very quickly he found his own style, pursuing a simplification of the semi-abstract, geometrical form, thus giving his sculptures an expressive appearance.