Polish sculptor Marian Konieczny dies
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
26.07.2017 11:48
One of Poland’s most prominent sculptors, Marian Konieczny, has died in Kraków, aged 87.
Marian Konieczny. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka
Born in a village in south-eastern Poland, he studied with Xawery Dunikowski at the Fine Arts Academy in Kraków and, subsequently, in Leningrad (now St Petersburg).
In 1964 he won a competition to design the Memorial to the Heroes of Warsaw, popularly known as the Warsaw Nike. That success marked the beginning of a fine career.
Konieczny made a name for himself primarily with several dozen large-scale sculptures, including monuments to Soviet leader Lenin in the Nowa Huta district of Kraków (dismantled after the collapse of communism), to Polish national hero Tadeusz Kościuszko in Philadelphia, and to Pope John Paul II in the religious shrine of Licheń, central Poland.
A member of the communist party and an MP during the communist period, Konieczny kept on receiving commissions for new memorials.
These included work on religious themes after the collapse of communism in Poland in 1989.
Konieczny was a member of faculty of the Fine Arts Academy in Kraków for 42 years, serving as its rector 1972-1981. (mk/pk)