Henryk Zegadlo

Henryk Zegadlo (born September 28, 1934 in Krzyzka , Poland ; † October 9, 2011 in Bad Bertrich ) is a German-Polish painter and sculptor.

Life

Zegadlo grew up in a village in central Poland . Many Jewish citizens lived there. The Jewish neighbors were friends with the family. So it so happened that Zegadlo grew up with the stories of the Old Testament . The characters of the biblical stories accompanied him during his childhood and have not left him later.

Henryk Zegadlo: Christophorus, copied pencil sketch (2000)

As in many Polish farming families, it was a tradition in the Zegadlo family to carve wooden toys in winter . Henryk and his younger brother Eugeniusz helped their father with this. For Adam Zegadlo (1910–1988, Krzyzka / Poland), carving went beyond the production of wooden toys. His figures and scenes from the Bible are considered the epitome of popular piety and have made him a well-known representative of Polish folk art .

In addition to his service in the Navy, he was allowed to attend a special school for fine arts from 1951, which paved his access to the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw , where he studied painting for six years with Professor Eugeniusz Eibisch from 1953 . After returning to his home village, he began carving wooden sculptures and also showed his brother the artistic work. Soon the Zegadlos were among the most famous Polish artists of wood carving , even if all three of them had their own individual creative forms that shaped their works of art. “State art lovers”, as Zegadlo calls them, became aware of his work and arranged exhibitions at home and abroad. From 1960 to 1978 he studied with his father Adam in Zakopane . Even then, many works of art went to museums all over the world. In addition to the creation of wooden sculptures, Zegadlo devoted himself to oil and watercolor painting and adapted the special type of reverse glass painting, which is very common in the Tatra Mountains .

Despite his state-sponsored success, Zegadlo could not accept the political system, which also held restrictions for him. He has lived in Western Europe since 1978 and had German citizenship since 2003 . In 1990 he visited Japan .

Over the years Zegadlo has created an oeuvre of more than 100 works of art relating to the Old Testament. Sculptures , reliefs , triptychs and paintings in various techniques give Moses , Noah , David and the many other biblical protagonists a face.

Museum purchases

selection

• Krakow - Warsaw - Kielce
• Berlin - Museum of European Cultures
• Bonn - Municipal Collection
• Neuss - City Museum
• Munich - State Collection Preuss. Cultural property
• Meersburg - Bible Museum

Commissioned work

selection

• 1977/78 Stage design with large sculptures in the New Theater Łódź (Dialogus de Passione, directed by Kazimierz Dejmek )
• Works for Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II )

Web links

• Literature by and about Henryk Zegadlo in the catalog of the German National Library