Stefan Gierowski

Stefan Gierowski was born in Częstochowa, Poland, in 1925. He came from a family of intellectuals and artists, and was influenced by his father's passion for painting. He joined the Polish resistance during the Second World War and participated in underground activities. He studied at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Art History at the Jagiellonian University. He was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw for many years, where he earned numerous distinctions. He abandoned representational and realist painting midway through the 1950s and devoted himself entirely to abstract and optical effects. He was fascinated by the dual nature of light, how light is enclosed within a painting and yet somehow escapes it. He created paintings that were dynamic, geometric, and cosmic, using vibrant colors and shapes. He was one of the key representatives of the Polish abstraction movement after the war. He exhibited his works in many countries and received several awards and honors. He died in 2022 at the age of 97.