Biography

Zbigniew Jan Krygowski - painter and sculptor, born on October 17th,

1904 in Błażowa next to Rzeszów.

Zbigniew's father, Kazimierz, was a sculptor, mother Paulina raised four sons.

Since childhood, Zbigniew Krygowski practiced in his father's atelier.

In the year 1925 he entered the State School of Wood and Artistic Industry in Zakopane, where he was learning under Wojciech Stryjeński and Wojciech Brzega.
Upon completion of his schools he returned to Błażowa and together with his father was working as a sculptor: made altars and other church equipment.

In the year 1929 he left to Poznań where he worked in sculpture aterliers and started studies at the Fine Arts Institute run by professor Adam Hannytkiewicz.

In the years 1931-1933, together with prof.
Hannytkiewicz, stayed in Paris and studied in the Paris branch of the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts, headed by Józef Pankiewicz.

In the year 1933 he participated in the Paris Salon des Indépendant.

In the years 1933-1944 the artist lived in Błażowa and in Rzeszów.

In the year 1933 became a member of the Trade Union of Polish

Artists in Cracow and since 1947 was a member of the Union of Polish Plastic Artists in Rzeszów.

Since July 1940
Zbigniew Krygowski was a soldier of the Home Army and until 1944 he acted in conspiracy (production of weapons, graphics for the newspaper named "Na posterunku” ["On Guard"]).

Since 1946 he was a teacher at the Free Institue of Fine Arts and since 1946 - a teacher of the State Center for Plastic Arts in Rzeszów.
In his work as a sculptor he continued the tradition of the so-called "zapkopiański style" and the Polish version of art deco, in the form which may be named the second zakopiański style.
The largest achievements are the interiors of the churches in Kraczkowa, Mazury, Rudna Wielka, Trzciana, Sanok and in other places.
In the paintings of Zbigniew Krygowski the color scheme organizes the entire composition.
Since the year 1929 in the artist's paintings one can see evolution from naturalism to the color scheme subordinated to the requirements of a two-dimensional painting composition.
The Paris compositions from the period of 1931-33 are characterized with monochromatism, the wide scale of the used monochromatic colors, with minimum saturation and silhouette articulation of color spots.
The years 1944 to 1949 the artist devoted to create his own painting formula; you can find reminiscences of certain directions of postmodernism, fowism and expressionism.
The second stage were the experiments from the years 1958-1975 when the artist finally defined his own style.
The artist created an original formula of a colored painting without counterparts in the achievements of modern Polish colorism.
He created bright paintings in impressionist tones, with watercolor texture.
The artist replaced the two-dimensional nature of the Paris paintings by a new type of three-dimensionality, resulting from building the form with color.
Such a formula of painting was shaped under the impact of a sculpturer's sensibility and a sculpturer's education, as well as the sculpture activity of Zbigniew Krygowski.

In the years 1949-1955 the artist served as the President of the Union of Plastic Artists in Rzeszów and later - the Regional Union of Polish Plastic Artists in Rzeszów.

In the years 1979 and 1991 the artist staged individual exhibitions of paintings in the Center for Arts in Rzeszów, organized by the Office of Artistic Exhibitions.
In the year 1991 Zbigniew Krygowski was awarded by the voivod of the Rzeszów Province for outstanding achievements in art.
Zbigniew Krygowski died in Rzeszów on August 23rd, 1992.
On October 16th, 2004 a vernissage of a retrospective exhibition of the sculpturer's and painter's works was held - on the centenary of the artist's birth.

On October 16th, 2014 a vernissage of an exhibition of the painting works of Zbigniew Krygowski was held in the Palace of Arts at Szczepański Place in Cracow.