passed away in 2022. Humble, he did not seek acclaim, he toiled for arts and people.
Marian Murawski created a modern style of illustration as an independent, word-inspired work of art \u2013 painting \u2013 as the famous writer W. My\u015bliwski said. He found his own unique way, thus, in monumental easel painting, in Polish and European movements, he was like a tree by the lively, vibrant water \u2013 the title of the first artwork after his return to painting in 1987, \u201cVibrant Water\u201d \u2013 like a tree bearing good fruit for the rest of life.
He walked through life with dignity together with his only companion, his artist wife, fine art painter, El\u017cbieta Murawska.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Compiled by Larysa Jaromska, the daughter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We invite you to read the latest interview the Artist managed to give exclusively for WHY Story Readers. On March 3, 2022, at the headquarters of the Association of Polish Artists and Designers, a painting exhibition of the late Marian Murawski was held under the WHY Story patronage, the next one will take place on August 5, in Suwa\u0142ki, yet, in 2023, there are also planned USA vernissages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marian Murawski: <\/strong>It wasn\u2019t a painting, but a drawing. I attended the first grade of primary school, and the teacher, upon seeing my work, said: you are going to make a great artist. From then on, I drew again and again, usually in sanguine crayon, portraying teachers and Polish heroes: Tadeusz Ko\u015bciuszko, Bartosz G\u0142owacki and others whose bravery and strength I admired. When my classmates didn\u2019t do their homework, in order to avoid blundering and to fill the lesson time, they often asked me to draw with chalk on the blackboard during the break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MM: <\/strong>I was born in Podleszczewo, near Suwa\u0142ki. My family lived in Vilnius, but then had to move to Podleszczewo. We had a very nice manor house there. El\u017cunia, please bring the album. First we lived on the ground floor, and then upstairs, because my mum didn\u2019t like the downstairs. We spent 10 years there. Do you see these trees? They\u2019re hornbeams, the manager cut them down because they were blocking his vegetable garden. This is a photo from the first years of the German occupation \u2013 me barefoot, my dad, older brother. And here when I was in the army \u2013 6 months, the military service was compulsory at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n El\u017cbieta Murawska: <\/strong>My husband used to be really handsome in his youth, tall, blonde hair \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MM: <\/strong>My older sister\u2019s husband was drafted into the army in Szczecin and so they moved there. My sister persuaded me to come and study at a grammar school there. Then I went to the energy high school and took a little maturity exam. At school I painted decorations for various ceremonies and the teachers persuaded me to move to the high school of arts. I had to pass the 4th grade exam, this high school was 5 years long. The headmaster was Mr. Mazurkiewicz, a pupil of Jacek Malczewski, and he saw talent in me, thanks to him I became a painter. However, when his wife died, he left for Krakow. His deputy only liked girls and removed all the boys from the class. I was the last to be removed, but then Countess Poninska, educated in Gdansk and Naples, took over as headmistress. The first thing she did was to ask us to draw a portrayal. We spread the drawings out on the floor, the headmistress stopped by mine and asked: who drew this? I shuddered with fear, thought I was done for and heard: and you were going to be thrown out? After all, this is the best portrait. I graduated from high school in Szczecin with honours and entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EM: <\/strong>When I matriculated at the Academy of Fine Arts I was 16, it seems unbelievable now, but primary school was six years back then and four years of high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MM: <\/strong>I noticed Elizabeth when I was in my first year at the ASP. She was attending an art centre class and one time she came with a group to watch us work. I looked over and there was such a nice girl, with a beautiful braid. I already knew her name was Radwan-Krotkiewska, because a friend from my year had attended the same art centre before and knew her. We didn\u2019t meet during the exams, but I looked at her work. I saw such a beautiful drawing depicting a marketplace in Kazimierz on the Vistula River and I thought that this person would surely get in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EM: <\/strong>I used to go to Kazimierz every year during my school years for holidays with my mother and grandmother, to visit my relative Berens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MM: <\/strong>I studied applied graphics in J\u00f3zef Mroszczak\u2019s studio and painting in Wojciech Fangor\u2019s studio, while El\u017cbieta studied graphic design in Henryk Tomaszewski\u2019s studio. She created beautiful posters which she was awarded for. I was fascinated and inspired by Fangor\u2019s painting, he introduced something completely different, I owe him a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EM: <\/strong>We had no conditions, no flat, no studio, nowhere to paint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MM:<\/strong> Elisabeth, there were plein-air painting workshops in Masuria, I painted a lot after the first year. After the second year, we attended the plein air together in the countryside, playing and going for walks in the pea fields to taste a bit of its freshness. Take a look at this photo: these are crazy painters, twin sisters Bo\u017cena and Alicja Wahl\u00f3wny. My first postgraduate painting was shown in the Zach\u0119ta Gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MM: <\/strong>4 years. I was an assistant in Professor J\u00f3zef Moszczanek\u2019s studio. I wasn\u2019t earning much, I didn\u2019t have a flat or a studio, and two daughters were born. I gave up when I got a well-paid non-artistic job. I painted advertisements on the walls of townhouses. I made a lot of money and bought a 15-square-metre room on the third floor without a lift, at 3 Akademicka Street. Elisabeth would get books to illustrate, we drew day and night. One book we did together: \u201cA Gust of Painted Wind\u201d by Voroshilsky, and we got the Golden Apple during the first World Biennale of Illustration in Bratislava.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EM: <\/strong>I will say without false modesty that this book, published by Nasza Ksi\u0119garnia, was something new, we were describing 3 lands in visual language. We created visual symbols for the military and musical lands. Take a look at this illustration by Marian for a book by Michal Wyszomirski, I love it: it shows a train, one boy with a big ear, it had a political meaning at one time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MM: <\/strong>Both Elisabeth and I received many awards \u2013 i.e. for our illustrations of the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales \u2013 and there was some money from that. Elisabeth illustrated more than 100 books, and I showed 250 works at one exhibition. And we had exhibitions all over the world, from the Pompidou Centre in Paris to New York, Tokyo, Mexico, S\u00e3o Paulo, Moscow, London or Tel Aviv. I was congratulated and told that I transformed illustrations into works of art. In 1980 we were to have an exhibition in Berlin, look at this picture of my wife: red devils pulling a tired face. The ministry thought it was a political allusion and didn\u2019t send our artworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EM: <\/strong>We once had an exhibition in Italy, there was a terrible heat, so the galleries were open until 2am. Everyone raved about Marian\u2019s illustrations, \u2018from the far sad North\u2019. They made a really peculiar atmosphere. Another time I went to Sweden and took some of my husband\u2019s paintings with me, I sold them all, although they were abstract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MM: <\/strong>And then I stopped doing illustrations because there were political revolutions at Nasza Ksi\u0119garnia and Ludowa Sp\u00f3\u0142dzielnia Wydawnicza, which I worked with. New people came in but we didn\u2019t get on. I took up easel, large-format, oil and acrylic painting. I showed paintings domestically and abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MM:<\/strong> \u201eByk rasy polskiej czerwonej\u201d, semi-abstract, I will show you: 2 x 2.5 m. I also like the \u201eSzczeblaty je\u017adziec\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MM: <\/strong>Of my wife, she is very cool and intelligent. At the Academy of Fine Arts, Professor Tomaszewski praised her a lot for her posters, and Jean Gabin was so impressed with one of her images that he asked Elisabeth to give it to him. I am also proud of my daughters \u2013 they are both painters, Beata lives in Italy and Larysa Marianna Jaromska in Poland, my grandchildren and great-grandchildren, that is, my family. Dorota Kolano Marian Murawski belongs to the honourable group of artists acknowledged as GREAT. Great becomes a creator who, thanks to his talent, brings novum in arts. Just like Marian Murawski. Nobody painted like him. Introduction He was born in the Suwa\u0142ki region and drew inspiration and creative strength from it\u2026passed away in 2022. Humble, he did not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5157"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5168,"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157\/revisions\/5168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/okladka-1-1024x679.jpg\")
We interview El\u017cbieta and Marian Murawski \u2013 outstanding fine art painters, graphic artists and book illustrators, winners of the titles Beautiful Fiftysomethings, Charismatic Woman and Leader by Vocation in the Leader of the 21st Century category. Mr Marian Murawski was awarded Gloria Artis \u2013 the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture \u2013 in 2022 for his lifetime achievements.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
You were awarded Gloria Artis \u2013 the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture, by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage for your lifetime achievements. Please tell us how old you were when painted your first painting?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
You were made an Honorary Citizen of Suwa\u0142ki, are you from the Suwa\u0142ki Lake District?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/W-NIEBIAN\u0301SKIEJ-PRZESTRZENI-730x1024.jpg\")
Where did you go to school after the war?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ZYWA-WODA-1997-AKRYL-200X140-1024x710.jpg\")
Mrs Murawska, what age were you at when you met your future husband?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/W-CZERWIENI-2000-AKRYL-250X200-1024x822.jpg\")
Were you already painting during your studies?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/TOWARZYSZ-STRACH-I-GLINA-2000-AKRYL-200X200-1018x1024.jpg\")
After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts, you started working at the university. For how long?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/SZCZEBLATY-JEZ\u0307DZIEC\u0301-2008-AKRYL-190X200-1024x978.jpg\")
I remember \u201cKidnapping in Tiuturlistan\u201d from my childhood, I even have kept the book until now because I was intrigued by your illustrations, which were also awarded, by the way.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
You gained recognition internationally and became a lecturer in illustration and book graphics at the Instituto Cubano del Libro in Havana.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/BYK-RASY-POLSKIEJ-CZERWONEJ-1988-AKRYL-260X160-1024x593.jpg\")
In your paintings, you draw inspiration from the Suwa\u0142ki region, its folklore and folk art, bringing fences and scarecrows to life, creating hybrid \u2018kuk\u0142ady\u2019 figures that emanate human emotions. Which of your paintings do you like best?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
And what are you most proud of?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Ps. They are both educated, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts with honours and are they are great painters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beata Seku\u0142a<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"