Witold Leszek Kaczanowski, Witold-K (b.1932), Character, 1967

Lithograph on paper, dimensions: 40 x 57 cm, full sheet: 45.5 x 64 cm
Signed in pencil p.g. Witold - K. 67
numbered l. g. 51/80

Witold-K. (Wit Leszek Kaczanowski), born in Warsaw 1932, his father was Feliks Kaczanowski, longtime director of the Psychiatric Hospital in Tworki. His childhood and the period of German occupation, which he spent as a child behind the walls of the hospital, left their mark on the artist's later work. "There is no greater loneliness than that into which a person is pushed by mental illness," notes Witold K.

He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw at the Faculty of Graphic Arts. He was a student of Eugeniusz Arct, Henryk Tomaszewski and Wojciech Fangor, among others, who remembered him this way years later: "During the exam, he approached me and politely but firmly asked for the highest grade. He had no doubt that this is what he should get. After seeing his work, I had no doubts either."

He graduated in 1956. From then on, he participated in exhibitions presenting the youngest generation of Polish artists, including the Exhibition of Young Visual Arts in Warsaw (1956) and the painting exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw (1961). The artist had his first solo exhibition at the SPATiF Actor's Club in Warsaw (1959). In the same year he was chosen as the creator of the mural in the Auschwitz Cultural Center, which is one of the largest paintings of its kind in Europe. In his work, Witold K. boldly went beyond traditional painting forms, creating sculptures, posters, as well as theater set designs.

In 1964, thanks to a grant from the Ministry of Culture and Art of the Polish People's Republic, he traveled to Paris. He brought out of Poland a manuscript written by Stanisław Cata-Mackiewicz, which was thus published by the Parisian "Kultura". The Security Office found out about the fact, which made Witold unable to return to the country for many years. In Paris he found himself in the circle of artistic bohemia. Among others, he befriended the writer and poet Jacques Prévert, who wrote a poem about his art. Through Prévert, he met Pablo Picasso, who painted a portrait of the artist. Among the people he came into contact with was Françoise Sagan, the most important postwar French writer. Vytautas' first foreign exhibition took place at Galerie 3 + 2, surprising and winning praise from French critics. As Philippe Caloni wrote in Pariscope Magazine: "These disturbing paintings are one of the greatest achievements of contemporary art, and their creator is one of the greatest painters of tomorrow."

In 1968, he decided to move to the US. First his stop was New York. A year later he moved to California, where he opened his first studio-gallery in Los Angeles. He also lived and worked in Santa Fe and Denver, where he had lived since 1980. "There you feel the power of space," says the artist. His stay in the US resulted in new series, such as Black Holes, Green Holes, Lines and the famous Solitude. The motif was taken from a situation observed by the artist: New York, a storefront with luxury furs, against which, on the sidewalk, sat a huddled homeless man. Hence, in the subsequent paintings in this series, a symbolic figure, devoid of identifying marks, details of anatomy, barely a few geometric shapes, all forming a metaphor of abandonment and loneliness.

Witold K. was the first Pole and American to have a retrospective at Amsterdam's oldest auction house, Sotheby's (2007). His works have been shown in more than 70 exhibitions, including 40 solo exhibitions, including at the Otis Art Institute of Los Angeles County (retrospective exhibition in 1973), at the exhibition "Graphics by Masters" at La Boetie Gallery in New York (alongside works by Picasso, Chagall, Miró, Braque and Giacometti, 1968), at Warsaw's Zachęta Gallery (1991), the Royal Baths Park (2004) and the National Museum in Krakow (2013).

Witold K. is the recipient of many awards and honors. Suffice it to mention, among others, the award of the Congress for Cultural Freedom (1965), the badge of Merit for Polish Culture awarded by the Minister of Culture and Art of the Republic of Poland (1997), the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture Gloria Artis awarded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2013).

He currently creates in his studios in Warsaw and Konstancin.