Jan Graczyk

Biography

Jan Graczyk was born in 1928 in Piastow near Warsaw.

He spent his childhood in Czechowice, which has been later transformed into a district of Warsaw (Ursus). There, he attended Szkola Powszechna (which is the equivalent of the elementary school) in Czechowice between 1935 and 1942, simultaneously joining the ‘207th Mazovian Scout Movement’. Several years later he joined Grey Ranks (Zawiszacy troop), made a military pledge, and became a soldier of the underground polish resistance movement called Union for Armed Struggle, Obroza group.

In 1942 Jan was apprenticed in the department of the “Kolorowa” foundry, where he was learning model making in metal forms and in wood.

After the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 started, he reported for the duty of defending his homeland in Sekcoin forests. In the aftermath of the Second World War, he helped other citizens in removing the rubble and reconstructing the destroyed city. Jan has also assisted in rebuilding the Ursus factory, where he was employed (department of mechanics) as a traser, modeler, and caster specialised in many branches of this profession (e.g. metal casting, sand casting). After a few years he was given a master's degree in metal casting.

Fascinated by the beauty of the traditional Polish landscape, he bought a plot of land in Puszcza Bolimowska, near the river Rokita. In spite of the heavy workload and difficulty of the work, Jan and his relatives formed the land into multiple terraces and planted the trees and bushes. After the nature infused the life into the Jan's land, it became the inner sanctum of the artist. After retiring from his work, he founded the Forest Gallery in 1983 Ursus. It became so famous and fabled that the trips from around the world were taken. A huge amount of guests visited Jan's Gallery. The extremely long list of visitors includes participants of school trips, scouts, arts students, and ordinary people, which have all signed in the commemorative book.

Artistic interests

In spite of being employed in the Ursus factory, he devoted some of his precious time to his new passion – art. As he said: ‘Being fascinated in works of art I saw in many museums, I decided to try my innate artistic abilities’. Starting with oil and watercolour painting, Jan eventually ended up sculpting in wood. Human faces are the main theme of his works of art e.g. sad, cunning, thoughtful, intelligent, or distressed – almost always serious. As Jan said ‘Human face always shows a blank expression. It does not smile unless somebody else looks at it or someone looks at his own reflection in the mirror’. The artist's fine arts is expressive and deeply moving because of its simplicity and severity. His first works of art alluded to the Second World War, for instance, “The Flame of Freedom” or “The Old City Burning”. Jan` oeuvres also contain a series of sculptures of Polish poets (e.g. A. Mickiewicz, C.K. Norwid, J. Kochanowski) and Polish monarchs. His chisel seemed to have had a full insight into human's inner feelings and thoughts.

Cycle of works - Deformation

Cycle of works - Polish Devils

Individual exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Before the Forest Gallery was opened, Polish and foreign media presented Jan Graczyk's sculptures. The artist's works can be found in private and national art collections (e.g. Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Holland, India, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, or the United States of America)

Medals