Igor Mitoraj

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Half portrait, showing the sculptor

Igor Mitoraj (born March 26, 1944 in Oederan , German Reich ; † October 6, 2014 in Paris , France ) was a Polish sculptor who lived and worked in France since 1968 and in Italy since 1983.

Biographical

Igor's mother was a Polish foreign worker, Igor's father was a French prisoner of war, both of whom had to work in the village near Oederan during the war. Her son was born in Oederan in March 1944, but the father's name is nowhere entered. After the liberation in 1945 everyone returned to their home country: the father to France, the mother with her one-year-old son to their parents in Poland. Igor Mitoraj grew up in the village of Grojec near Auschwitz, where his mother came from, from 1945 onwards. After attending school, Igor graduated from the Art High School in Bielsko-Biała and entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in 1963 . There he attended the painting class led by Tadeusz Kantor and completed his training in 1968.

After that, Igor continued his art studies at the National College of Fine Arts in Paris . At this important institution he got a job as a painter and graphic artist. Mitoraj made his artistic breakthrough in 1976 with an exhibition in the gallery of the La Hune bookstore in the Latin Quarter . During a work stay in South America , whose art and culture fascinated him, he discovered his preference for sculpture and he created his first sculptures out of terracotta and bronze . In preparation for a state art exhibition in 1977 at the Artcurial Gallery in Paris, works by Mitoraj were selected at the suggestion of the nephew of the then French President François Mitterrand . He went to Pietrasanta , a center of intensive artistic work with bronze and marble , to prepare exhibits for this exhibition . It was there that Igor Mitoraj made his first monumental sculpture out of white Carrara marble. A total of 120 sculptures and drawings were created. These exhibits were shown in solo exhibitions around the world in the following years. His often gigantic sculptures are now in Paris in the La Défense district , in Rome, Milan, Lausanne, London, Krakow, Scheveningen, The Hague and even in the USA and Japan .

In 1983 Mitoraj opened an art studio in Pietrasanta and since then he has lived alternately in France and Italy.

The Polish Minister of Culture Waldemar Dąbrowski honored Igor Mitoraj's artistic oeuvre in October 2005 with the award of the Gloria Artis Medal for cultural merit in gold.

Mitoraj died on October 6, 2014 in the Hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris.

style

Woman's face , exhibit in the exhibition in Scheveningen
Eros Bendato, the connected Eros, work of art in Lugano Switzerland

The main theme of Mitoraj's sculptures was the human body, its beauty and fragility, and the deeper aspects of human nature depicted under the influence of time and circumstances. He was based on the classical works of Michelangelo and Antonio Canova and liked to fall back on figures from Greek and Roman mythology . There are recurring themes such as Ikaros , Tyndareos , Centauro , Eros , Mars or Gorgona . By deliberately damaging the surface with cracks or omitted parts, including often empty eye sockets, Mitoraj showed the imperfection of human nature and the easy vulnerability of humans. Mitoraj's style, the interpretation of antiquity in connection with clear accents of modernity, has become a world-famous trademark of his monumental art.

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

  • 1986: Participation in the Venice Biennale
  • 2003/2004: on the main square in Krakow and then in Warsaw ;
    56 classical sculptures made of bronze, cast iron, white and black marble and terracotta as well as drawings; produced by 36 artists (October 2003 – January 2004 and February – April 2004)
  • 2006: Valencia
  • 2008: Madrid

Works (selection)

  • 1996-1998: Icaria Group; at least 3 different representations
  • 1997: Porta Italica , second casting
  • 1998: Tindaro screpolato
  • 1999: Eros Bendato
  • 2000: torso with bent wing
  • 2002: Alate viol
  • 2009: On the bank ; ( Travertine )
  • 2010: Daedalos
  • 2010: Hermanos

Locations in Germany

Locations in Poland

Locations in Italy

  • 2006: St. John the Baptist , location: Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome
  • Milan; Fountain Centaur
  • Pietrasanta
  • Pisa, 80 m north of the tower: Angelo caduto / Fallen Angel Bronze 2012

In other European countries

Sculpture in front of the Olympic Museum
  • 1986: Heros de Lumiere ; Carrara marble in Yorkshire Sculpture Park , England
  • Testa Addormentata in the grounds of Canary Wharf , London
  • Centaur in the grounds of Canary Wharf, London
  • Porta Italica , in front of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne
  • Female face (1) in The Hague , Netherlands
  • Female face (2) on Beeld boulevard in Scheveningen
  • Female face (2), second casting, in front of the British Museum in London
  • Per Adriano , 1993 in front of the Teatro Guimera, Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Web links

Commons : Igor Mitoraj  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Main source: the Polish wiki page on Igor Mitoraj
  2. ↑ Image and text for the award of the art medal (Polish: Medal Gloria Artis dla twórców i działaczy kultury ) , accessed on November 2, 2011
  3. ↑ Laura Nontanari, Mario Neri: Addio allo scultore Igor Mitoraj. In: La Repubblica of October 6, 2014 (Italian, accessed October 6, 2014).
  4. ↑ Detail of the bronze door
personal data
SURNAME Mitoraj, Igor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Oederan , Germany
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 2014
Place of death Paris , France