Jan Świderski (1913-2004), Urban Landscape [Krakow], 1960s.

Oil, canvas; size: 72 x 54 cm; signed l. d.: Jan Świderski

State of preservation: dents and cracks in the painting (especially two areas of the composition).

Polish visual artist, artist and art theorist. Studied between 1930 and 1938, graduating first from the State School of Decorative Arts of the Artistic Industry in Poznań, and then from the Academy of Fine Arts - Faculty of Painting in Cracow. As a volunteer of the Academic Legion, he participated in the 1939 September campaign, as a result of which he spent the occupation period in a prisoner of war camp. After 1945, he organizes the Association of Polish Artists in Cracow. In 1947, the then Department of Art Education of the Ministry of Culture and Art appointed Jan Świderski as an independent academic, entrusting him with the position of professor at the Higher School of Visual Arts in Cracow. In 1950, he became president of the ZPAP District in Cracow. He became at the Academy of Fine Arts pro-rector for teaching, curriculum and youth, then served as rector for a year, at the same time leading the painting studio. In 1968, at the newly opened Faculty of Graphics, he took over the Department of Painting and Drawing, heading it until his retirement in 1984.