Stanisław Szukalski, BOLESŁAW ŚMIAŁY (RIGHT), 1985

49.0 x 32.5 cm - black and white photograph, photographic paper 49 x 32.5 cm (light passe-partout)

signed in marker p.d. vertically: SSzukalski | 85

On the reverse of the binding middleground sticker certificate of authenticity signed by hand with a long: Glenn Bray (on a dry seal with an inscription in the rim: ARCHIVES SZUKALSKI)

The certificate contains the history of the creation of the work (translation from English):

This set of photographs was taken in late 1985 and early 1986, when Glenn Bray discovered the existence of Szukalski's original glass negatives from the late 1910s and 1920s. Since Szukalski never wanted to sell his original painting and drawing works during his lifetime, a plan was made to organize a commercial exhibition of the artist's signed photographic prints. A professional photographer from Burbank [S. Szukalski's place of residence in California - footnote] was chosen to make them. Since the original glass negatives were extremely sensitive, it was decided that only a small number of prints would be made, with few duplicates of the images considered crucial.

The exhibition was never organized. The boxes of signed images remained with Glenn Bray until Szukalski's death, virtually forgotten, until they were rediscovered in 2021, 35 years after they were made.

All the prints were made on Kodak's proprietary photographic papers.

♣ to the auctioned price, in addition to other costs, will be added a fee resulting from the right of the creator and his heirs to receive remuneration in accordance with the Act of February 4, 1994 - on Copyright and Related Rights (droit de suite)

Stanislaw Szukalski (Warta near Sieradz, 1893 - Los Angeles 1987) - sculptor.
In 1907 he emigrated with his parents to the United States. In the same year, at the age of less than fourteen, he began attending the Institute of Art in Chicago. The boy's extraordinary talent came to the attention of the sculptor Antoni Popiel, who was in the States at the time, and prompted his parents to send him to study at Krakow's Academy of Fine Arts. Szukalski studied there for three years under Konstanty Laszczka, soon taking part in exhibitions of the Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Krakow. In 1913, the artist returned to Chicago.

Szukalski's early works are mainly portrait busts, in which the influence of various styles - both Art Nouveau and European avant-garde currents (Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism), as well as the primitive art of North and South America - is marked. After 1914, figural compositions with symbolic, often highly enigmatic meaning begin to appear in the sculptor's work. In them, the artist operates far-reaching deformation of the bodies of the depicted figures with simultaneous, virtuosic rendering of anatomical details. Seeking to include increasingly complex philosophical messages in the work, the content of Szukalski's works soon became impossible to read without knowing the author's commentary. This was true of a number of works exhibited at the artist's exhibition held at Warsaw's "Zachęta" in 1923, as well as the design for a monument to Adam Mickiewicz in Vilnius, which was awarded first prize in a competition in 1925. This project operated with intricate symbolism; it depicted a figure of Mickiewicz perched on a stepped, pyramidal pedestal, feeding an eagle with its own blood flowing from its heart. Despite the honorable mention, the project provoked a wave of protests and was ultimately not realized (a second competition was eventually held, the winner of which was Henryk Kuna). From then on, the Polish art community divided into two camps - either supporters or staunch opponents of Szukalski's creative stance.
In 1925, the artist's works, exhibited in the Polish section at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris (sculptures and architectural designs), were honored with the highest awards by an international jury. After traveling around the countries of Europe (1926-1928), Szukalski came to Krakow, where a retrospective exhibition of his work was organized in 1929. During the opening of this exhibition, the artist caused a scandal with his statement, condemning in vigor the state of Polish art, which, according to the artist, slavishly imitated Western models and lost its native character. The sculptor subjected his teaching methods at the Cracow Academy to particularly harsh criticism, and soon established his own art school, called "Twórcownia." Clustered around Szukalski, young enthusiasts of the slogans he preached formed a group called Szczep Szukalszczyk herbu Rogate Serce in 1929. The group's main demand was to dissociate itself from Western influences and to refer in art to national, or even "racial", Slavic roots. Szukalski remained the undisputed leader of the Strain, although he left for California the same year and contacted his students only by correspondence.
Once again the artist came to Poland in 1936, at which time he put forward the idea of erecting a sculptural-architectural complex called "Duchtynia." This ensemble, whose location was designed by Szukalski at the bottom of the Dragon's Den near Wawel, was to become a place of Slavic worship. This vision, of course, did not win many supporters, but the artist nevertheless won a commission for the sculptural decoration of the Silesian Museum building in Katowice and the Boleslaw Chrobry monument there. Szukalski worked on the models for these works in Warsaw, but they were destroyed in the German bombing of September 1939. Shortly thereafter, the artist left for the United States permanently (he came to Poland once more, briefly, in 1957).

In 1939-1945, facing financial difficulties, he created little; his main attention was devoted to cursive anthropological and linguistic considerations aimed at proving the thesis that the language of primitive societies was similar to Polish.
From the late period of the long-lived artist's oeuvre come visionary sculptural and architectural designs for monuments, including the "Prometheus of the Humbled" (1943), intended as a gift from the American people to the United Nations, and the "Gallic Rooster" (1960), designed for Paris as a tribute to French partisans. At the end of his life, Szukalski published two albums by the author, presenting his past and more recent creative explorations: "Troughful of Pearls" (1980) and "Inner Portraits by Szukalski" (1982).

source: https://culture.pl/pl/tworca/stanislaw-szukalski