Prof. Tadeusz Kulisiewicz (b. 1899, Kalisz – d. 1988, Warsaw) was printmaker and drawing artist, and a long-serving educator at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he served as dean of the Faculty of Graphic Arts.
Beginnings in Kalisz
From childhood he displayed notable artistic ability. He first exhibited while a pupil at the Tadeusz Kościuszko Higher Real School in Kalisz, at his drawing teacher’s instigation. At that time he favoured watercolours depicting views of Kalisz. Among his favourite sites were the city park, St Stanislaus Square, and Józefina Avenue (today Aleja Wolności). His fascination with the Prosna River and the elemental force of water would recur throughout his later work.
From Poznań to Warsaw: Choosing Printmaking
At twenty-two, Kulisiewicz — known since childhood as ‘Kulis’ — left for Poznań to study at the State School of Decorative Arts (today the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts Poznań). He became enthralled by printmaking. After two years, he recalled: ‘One day my professor said: “Kulis, my dear, go to Warsaw.” A fellow student and I went, without any patronage. We submitted our works, sat the entrance exam to the Academy of Fine Arts, and waited to see whether we had been admitted. We had. That is how it began.’ He settled in Warsaw for the rest of his life and specialised in printmaking, studying with Mieczysław Kotarbiński and Władysław Skoczylas — widely regarded as the father of modern Polish woodcut. From Skoczylas he inherited a profound commitment to the medium, which for many years became his principal vehicle of expression.
Early Success and Global Exhibition
Kulisiewicz’s career was marked by early and sustained recognition. From his debut print portfolio, Szlembark (1931) — a suite portraying the lives of impoverished highland communities — his prints were warmly received by critics and audiences alike. His works were shown in hundreds of solo and group exhibitions worldwide, in cities including Florence, Tokyo, Paris, New York, São Paulo, New Delhi and Rio de Janeiro.
War, Loss, and a Shift to Drawing
In 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, Kulisiewicz’s studio — located in his flat on Wiejska Street — was destroyed by fire. At forty-five he lost the entire body of work kept there, along with his printmaking equipment. From that point on — although he continued to teach printmaking at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts until retirement — he turned almost exclusively to drawing. He was appointed associate professor in 1946 and full professor in 1950.
Journeys under the PRL: Themes and Style
Described by a local periodical as ‘the most widely travelled native of Kalisz since Szolc-Rogoziński’, he undertook remarkable itineraries under the Polish People’s Republic (PRL), including China, India, Brazil, Mexico and Cuba. Sketches and notes made on these journeys were reworked into finished drawings in his Warsaw studio, in Szlembark, and later in Kiry-Kościelisko. Recurrent motifs in his oeuvre include the mother and child, workers at labour and at rest, rural life and maritime subjects. His illustrations for the dramas of Bertolt Brecht accompanied multilingual editions of the playwright’s works. Today he is perhaps best known for portraits rendered in a fluid, economical, almost calligraphic line — the ‘Kulisiewicz line’ became a byword for finesse and subtlety.
Legacy: Foundation and the Kalisz Collection
Kulisiewicz died in 1988 and was buried beside his wife at the Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw. Under the terms of his will, his estate was devoted to the statutory purposes of the Tadeusz Kulisiewicz Scholarships and Awards Foundation, supporting young artists, while the contents of his studio — comprising over a thousand works — were transferred to the Regional Museum of Kalisz (Muzeum Okręgowe Ziemi Kaliskiej), which today holds the largest collection of his works.
