Roman Owidzki

Roman Owidzki (born 1912 in Ostrowy near Łódź, died 2009 in Warsaw) was a painter, pedagogue, professor of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, one of the most important Polish artists, consistently developing the language of non-figurative art. He studied at Warsaw University 1931-1934, and at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in 1935-1939. During the war interned at the Oflag VIII A for Polish POWs in Murnau, Germany. His teaching at the Solids and Planes Composition Studio of the Warsaw Academy’s Faculty of Painting and Graphic Design (from 1965), and then at the Faculty of Painting’s expanded Visual Structures and Practices Studio (1975-1984) was crucial for the development of abstract art in Poland. In 1966, Owidzki co-founded the Foksal Gallery. He was also a draughtsman and illustrator, mainly of children’s books, working for publishers such as Nasza Księgarnia. Solo exhibitions at the Miami Museum of Modern Art (1962), the Association of Polish Musicians in Warsaw (1965), 3A Gallery (Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, 1996), Studio Gallery, Warsaw (2005), the Association of Polish Visual Artists, Warsaw (2007). In the 1960s, Owidzki regularly participated in the Confrontations cyclical exhibition series organised by the Krzywe Koło Gallery (1956-1965). Selected group shows: 1st Exhibition of Modern Art, Kraków (1948); 2nd and 3rd Exhibitions of Modern Art, Warsaw (1957, 1959); Painting Collections of the Krzywe Koło Gallery (1961); Two Worlds, Grabowski Gallery, London (1964); Confrontations, Elbląg (1965); Artists and Scientists Symposium, Puławy (1966); Foksal Gallery (1966); Space, Movement, Light, Wrocław (1967); Krzywe Koło Gallery, National Museum in Warsaw (1990). Owidzki was a recipient of the Cyprian Kamil Norwid Prize (2006) and the Jan Cybis Prize (2007). His works are kept in the collections of the National Museums in Warsaw and Poznań, the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts Museum as well as in numerous private collections in Poland and abroad.

Exhibitions in the gallery: Form in Painting