Jan BUKOWSKI (1873–1938), The Upanishads

Color lithograph, paper; 21 x 15 cm (inside the mat), signed on the plate “J.B.”, center bottom

Jan Bukowski (1873, Barszczowice, Lviv Province – 1943, Nowy Targ), painter and printmaker. He attended high school in Kraków and Nowy Sącz. From 1893 to 1900, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. In 1900, he received a scholarship and left for Munich, where he studied at the Neumann and Wolf School of Graphic Arts and in arts and crafts workshops. In 1901, together with Jan Szczepkowski and Włodzimierz Tetmajer, he founded the School of Fine Arts and Applied Arts for Women in Kraków. He traveled several times to Germany, Italy, and Paris. He was a member of the Polish Artists’ Society “Sztuka,” a co-organizer of the Polish Applied Arts Society, artistic director at the university printing house in Kraków, artistic director of Żeleński’s stained-glass factory, a collaborator with the Commission for the Study of Art Monuments in Poland, and a professor at the School of Applied Arts in Kraków. His artistic work focused on mural painting and book illustration. In his polychromes, he combined figurative elements with stylized floral motifs. He painted the Chapel of St. John of Nepomuk in the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kraków (together with W. Tetmajer), the chapel at the Reformed Monastery in Kęty, the church in Bolesławiec (near Byczyna), the church in Skrzyszów near Tarnów, the parish church in Bochnia, St. Joseph’s Church in Kraków, and others. He also worked in applied graphics and batik; furthermore, he designed book bindings, kilims, furniture, small everyday objects, and interiors. He also designed the polychrome decoration in the Franciscan-Reformate Church in Wieliczka.