Dimensions: 150 x 124 cm
signed, dated and inscribed l.d.: 'Warsaw [illegible] 1983 | Replika 1990 | E. Markowski'
Origin:
private collection, Poland
DESA Unicum, 2022
private collection, Warsaw
Biography
Painter, graphic artist, stage designer. In 1938 he received his diploma from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in the studio of 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 work of the Renaissance classics and the Italian Futurists. There he became involved with the Libera Associazione Arti Figurative group, with which he exhibited his work on many occasions. He returned to the country in 1955. From 1969 he was a teacher at his alma mater. He belonged to the trend of new figuration. The protagonist of his paintings is a man subjected to the pressure of negative emotions, a deformed man - a monster, half funny, half tragic. The rich texture of his paintings and their grotesque expression bring his art closer to the poetics of art brut and the work of J. Dubuffet. Despite this, Markowski's striving for an undercurrent of harmony is present, and references to antiquity and the Renaissance are evident. In 1963, the artist participated in the Sao Paulo Biennale. He is the recipient of the 1984 C. K. Norwid Art Criticism Award and the 1998 Dr. L. Siuda Collectors' Award, established in Poznan.
