Wislawa Szymborska | Because it was only love / Perché era amore solamente

Cademmo nell’abbraccio,

ci separammo dal mondo,

non sapevamo se eravamo due corpi

o due anime

o un corpo e un’anima

o se semplicemente

non eravamo

Jeff Rowland

Tomasz Rut, 1961 | Neo Baroque painter

Named one of the most collectible living artists, Tomasz Rut continues to expand the realm of contemporary figurative painting to the artistic limits reached only by the Great Masters of the past. Often compared to the epic works of the Antiquity, Renaissance and Baroque, his Classical artwork, inducted into The Vatican Collection by Pope Benedict XVI, resurrects the dormant tradition of figurative painting, emulating the style, harmonious elegance and passion in the spirit of Michelangelo, Raphael or Caravaggio, but does it in an eloquent, modern adaptation, accommodating the contemporary viewer.

Inspired by the mythological Greco-roman origins of our western culture, the content of Rut’s work is at once dreamlike and tangible.

Melding the sublime and the real, the artist seeks not to portray mythology as reality, but he transforms his subjects into sensuous, universal themes (...) that emanate from a unique, modern viewpoint, untinged by the all too frequent decadence, cynicism and confusion proliferating the art scene since Courbet's – circa 1860 – exhortation: "Show me and angel and I'll paint you one".

Teodor Axentowicz | Academic painter

Teodor Axentowicz (1859-1938) was a Polish-Armenian painter and university professor.

A renowned artist of his times, he was also the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. As an artist, Axentowicz was famous for his portraits and subtle scenes of Hutsul life, set in the Carpathians.

In Paris, he received the prestigious title of Officier d'Académie Ordre des Palmes Académiques and Member of Académie des Beaux-Arts.

In 1904 at the St. Louis World's Fair, Axentowicz received a Special Commemorative Award in recognition of distinguished service in connection with various national sections of the Department of Art.

Wisława Szymborska | First Love / Il primo amore

They say

the first love's most important.

That's very romantic,

but not my experience.

Something was and wasn't there between us,

something went on and went away.

Andre Kohn | The burnt orange beret

Eugeniusz Żak

Belarusian / Polish artist Eugeniusz Zak (1884-1926) was born to a family of Polish Jews in Minsk, Belarus. As a boy he moved to Warsaw, where he graduated from a non-classical secondary school.

In 1902, he left for Paris to undertake studies, first at the École des Beaux-Arts in the studio of the aged master of academism Jean-Léon Gerôme, and then at Académie Colarossi in the studio of Albert Besnard.

In 1903, he traveled to Italy and toward the end of the year to Munich, where he entered a private school run by the Slovenian Anton Ažbé. His fame grew rapidly. The French government purchased of one of his paintings for the Luxembourg Museum (1910), he organized a one-man show at Galerie Druet (1911), and he was connected with important personalities of Parisian cultural life, including the critics Adolf Basler and André Salmon.

Edward Okun (1872-1945) | Symbolist / Art Nouveau painter

Edward Okuń was a Polish🎨 Art Nouveau painter🎨 and freemason. He painted landscapes, portraits, designed covers and llustrated magazines, including the German magazine "Jugend".

• Biography

Okuń was born in 1872 to a noble family and was orphaned early. He grew up with his grandparents on the maternal side.

After inheriting a large fortune, he soon began drawing lessons with great painters. In 1891 he studied at the Warsaw School of Drawing. From 1891-1893 he studied under the direction of Isidore Jablonski and Jan Matejko at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts.

He continued his studies in Munich and Paris.

Karl Witkowski (Polish/American painter, 1860-1910)

Karol (Karl) Dominik Witkowski was a Polish🎨-American🎨 portraitist and genre painter🎨, better known in the USA as Karl Witkowski. He painted scenes of contemporary daily life in America.

Karol Dominik Witkowski was born to a Polish family in Jazłowiec (Jaslowiec), near Buchach, Czortków (Podole, Poland, now Ukraine).

As young boy he showed unusual talent in making drawings and his parents sent him to school in Chortkiv (12 miles from Yazlovets).

Damian Lechoszest, 1976 | Genre painter

Polish painter🎨 Damian Lechoszest was born in Raciborz. At first his great interest was drawing. From the early childhood he liked to copy various characters of comics and fairy tales.

His childish sketches were so good that many people from his nearest neighborhood were very astonished.

At the first school years he took part in many artistic high-level competitions. His artistic works were often rewarded and got good opinions of critics.