Dimensions: 120 x 100 cm
signed lower right: 'E. Markowski'
Provenance
purchased directly from the artist
private collection, Poland
private collection, Warsaw
Biography
Painter, printmaker, and set designer. In 1938, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he studied under Prof. T. Pruszkowski. For many years, he worked as a journalist and diplomat, including in Canada and Italy. It was in Italy that he had the opportunity to become acquainted with both the works of the Renaissance masters and the Italian Futurists. There, he also became involved with the Libera Associazione Arti Figurative group, with which he exhibited his works on numerous occasions. He returned to Poland in 1955. From 1969 onward, he taught at his alma mater. He was part of the New Figuration movement. The protagonist of his paintings is a human being subjected to the pressure of negative emotions—a deformed figure, a monstrosity, half comical, half tragic. The rich texture of his paintings, as well as their grotesque expression, bring his art closer to the poetics of art brut and the work of J. Dubuffet. Despite this, Markowski’s pursuit of an underlying harmony is evident, as are references to antiquity and the Renaissance. In 1963, the artist participated in the São Paulo Biennial. He is the recipient of the 1984 C. K. Norwid Art Critics’ Award and the 1998 Dr. L. Siuda Collectors’ Award, established in Poznań.
