Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.


Marek Szwarc artist

Marek Szwarc was born into a Jewish family in Zgierz, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland) in 1892. He studied art at the School of Fine Arts in Paris from 1910–14, after which he established himself as an artist and sculptor of international repute. Arriving in Scotland with the Polish Army during the Second World War, Szwarc exhibited his works at the Royal Scottish Academy, and in London at the Royal Academy and the French Institute, among other venues.

Born: 1892 Zgierz, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland)

Died: 1958 Paris, France

Year of Migration to the UK: 1940

Other name/s: Marek Schwarz, Schwarz


Biography

Painter and sculptor Marek Szwarc was born into a Jewish family in Zgierz, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland) on 9 May 1892. From 1910–14 he studied art at L'École des Beaux Arts in Paris, lodging at La Ruche artists'colony and engaging with other École de Paris notables, such as Fernand Léger, Amedeo Modigliani and Marc Chagall. Szwarc’s early work was strongly influenced by his Jewish faith, and he collaborated with other Jewish artists from Eastern Europe to publish the Yiddish art journal Machmadim (Precious Ones), and in 1913 he exhibited his first sculpture, Eve, in the Salon d’Automne. He returned to his homeland in 1914, first settling in Łódź, then travelling to other parts of the Russian Empire (modern day Kyiv, Ukraine, and Moscow, Russia) in 1918. There he participated in local Jewish literary circles, before returning to Łódź in early 1919 and joining the Young Yiddish Group, co-founded by fellow Pole, Jankel Adler. During this time Szwarc met his future wife, Eugenia Pinkus, through a mutual friend. In June 1920, Szwarc returned to Paris, initially working as a painter, before turning to bas-relief sculpture in copper and brass, as well as working in stone, wood and metal. He specialised in religious scenes and portraits in a style that combined neo-classicism with the influence of African sculpture and Jewish folk art. Between 1922 and the late 1930s, Szwarc continued to exhibit in Paris, Stockholm, New York, Berlin and Warsaw, during which time he enjoyed commercial success, selling works to museums and collectors in Europe and the USA. During the Second World War, he enlisted as a volunteer in the Polish Army in France, alongside Jankel Adler. This took Szwarc to Scotland (where he remained between 1940 and 1943), having arrived in 1940 with the Polish Army in exile after the fall of France. His wife, Eugenia, and daughter, Tereska, also fled for safety, travelling via Lisbon, Portugal, to England, where the family were finally reunited.

During the war, Szwarc drew more than 30 pen and ink drawings depicting the daily life of his fellow Polish soldiers in Scotland (now in the collection of the Yivo Institute in New York). He was eventually given leave by the Polish Army to work on his sculptures, and he created two pieces for the Saltire Society. In Scotland he exhibited in the Royal Scottish Academy’s annual exhibition in Edinburgh, showing one work in 1942 and two in 1943. He also showed works in London with the Royal Academy of Arts, The London Group, and the prestigious Leicester Galleries in 1944. After the war Szwarc returned with his family to Paris, while maintaining some connections with London. In 1951 the French Institute in London purchased his wood sculpture, Resistance, and it was also with the French Institute that he exhibited sculptures (including small bronzes), alongside drawings and lithographs, in 1955. Reviewing this exhibition, the Jewish Chronicle observed: ‘Mr. Szwarc is a good sculptor. He has something to express, and he expresses it in the European tradition that comes to us through Michelangelo and Rodin. He adapts his style to his purpose, as he chooses his material, but there is nothing ‘fashionable’ about it: it is a simple message simply spoken, with that ground-based solidity that becomes sculpture. Carving is his principal method, though he also models and used to work a good deal in beaten copper’ (‘Art Notes’, 1955). He also showed 24 drawings of Scottish trees that had been completed in 1942.

Marek Szwarc died suddenly at his home in Paris, France, on the 28 December 1958, aged 66. In the UK public domain, his painting, A Jew from the Shtetl (c. 1920), is held in the Ben Uri Collection, and his sculpted bust of Edwin Muir is held by Orkney Library. A Jew from the Shtetl featured in Ben Uri's 2020 online exhibition: New Acquisitions and Long-term Loans.

Related books

  • Sarah MacDougall and Rachel Dickson eds., Out of Chaos: Ben Uri: 100 Years in London (London: Ben Uri, 2015), p. 70-71
  • Marek Szwarc, Eugenia Markowa, Mémoires : entre deux mondes (Coeuvres: Ressouvenances, 2010)
  • 'Art Notes: Marek Szwarc', Jewish Chronicle, 21 October 1955, p. 21
  • Meyer Levin, The Golden Mountain (New York: Behrman House, 1951)

Public collections

Related organisations

  • London Group (member)
  • Saltire Society (contributor)

Related web links

Selected exhibitions

  • New Acquisitions and Long-term Loans, Ben Uri Gallery, London (2020)
  • French Institute, London (1955)
  • London Group Exhibition (1944)
  • Royal Academy, London (1944)
  • Leicester Gallery, London (1944)
  • Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (1943)
  • Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (1942)
  Marek Szwarc
   
Ben Uri collection

Marek Szwarc in the Ben Uri collection

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Marek Szwarc]

Ben Uri library

Publications related to [Marek Szwarc] in the Ben Uri Library