Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1910 Siedliska, Poland

Died: 1986 London, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1947

Other name/s: Stanisław Michał Gliwa

Biography

Typographer, graphic artist, and publisher, Stanislaw Gliwa was born in Siedliska, Polish Lands (now Poland) on 26 March 1910. His education began at schools in Rzeszów and Strzyżów, after which he studied at the State School of Decorative Arts and Artistic Industry in Kraków under influential teachers including Henryk Uziembła and the controversial sculptor, Stanisław Szukalski. Szukalski significantly influenced Gliwa, introducing him to the avant-garde art group Szczep Rogate Serce (‘The Horned Heart Tribe’). Using the pseudonym ‘Kurhanin ze Słociny’, Gliwa contributed to the group's exhibitions and designed the typography for its influential periodical, Krak. He further enhanced his graphic skills in Poznań under Karol Mondral and Jan J. Wroniecki. Before the Second World War, Gliwa taught graphic design and drawing, first at the Art Industry Secondary School in Sosnowiec, then at a vocational school in Katowice. His teaching career was interrupted by the outbreak of the conflict. Drafted on 3 July 1939 into the 1st Railway Bridge Battalion in Kraków, he participated in the September campaign. On 19 September 1939, he was captured by Soviet forces and sent through a grueling series of POW camps, including Szepietowka, Nowograd, Żerebiłówka, Omelany, Równe, Płoskirów, Jarmolince, Starobielsk, ultimately arriving at Tockoje in 1941.

During his two-year internment, Gliwa created over 200 portraits of fellow prisoners and their captors, crediting this artistic practice with helping him survive psychologically and materially. At Tockoje, he joined General Władysław Anders' Polish Second Corps, journeying with them through the Middle East to Italy. He served in the 3/6 Sapper Company of the 6th Armoured Division, documenting military life through sketches and illustrations for army publications. In Egypt, Gliwa was assigned to the Cultural and Press Office of the 2nd Tank Brigade, editing newsletters and producing illustrations, linocuts, and maps. Among his key wartime accomplishments were the design and technical supervision of Melchior Wańkowicz's renowned three-volume work, The Battle of Monte Cassino, involving nearly 2,000 carefully selected illustrations praised for their integration of visual and narrative clarity. He also co-produced the photo album Ramię Pancerne 2 Polskiego Korpusu (1946) and contributed to several other military publications. Following the end of the war, Gliwa initially moved to Rome, working closely with the Instytut Literacki. He notably designed the original cover, vignette, and typography of the first issue of Kultura magazine (June 1947), and created the distinctive logotypes for the Instytut Literacki and Casa Editrice Lettere.

At the end of 1947, Gliwa relocated to England, initially residing in London. He undertook various casual jobs, notably designing the first edition of General Anders’s memoir, Bez ostatniego rozdziału (Without the Last Chapter, London, 1949). In 1951, he became an instructor in therapeutic printing workshops at Mabledon Park psychiatric hospital in Tonbridge. There, with limited resources—a pedal-operated press and a small stock of metal type—he began producing finely crafted bibliophile editions, beginning with Bronisław Przyłuski’s Strofy o malarstwie (1953). In 1957, Gliwa moved to Southend-on-Sea and worked in commercial printing, eventually acquiring his own equipment. In 1963, he dedicated himself fully to independent publishing. By 1969, having relocated to New Eltham, southeast London, Gliwa equipped his home-based workshop with an Albion hand press from 1872 and a 1920 Arab press. His publishing house, Oficyna Stanisława Gliwy (Officina Typographica), produced approximately 40 hand-printed books—mostly in Polish and often illustrated with his own linocuts—as well as greeting cards and commemorative prints. His publications included typographically and visually refined editions of prose and poetry by authors such as Wacław Iwaniuk, Anna Frajlich, Edward Raczyński, Samuel Tyszkiewicz’s Artysta Typograf (1962), and Sylvia Plath’s Three Women (1968). Gliwa’s linocuts ranged from bold, expressive colour prints to subtle typographic ornaments, always carefully integrated into the overall design. His commemorative prints captured significant historical events connected with Poland, such as Pope John Paul II's election, the emergence of Poland’s Solidarity movement, and martial law.

Gliwa became internationally recognised, joining esteemed organisations such as The London Chapel of Private Press Printers (1963) and Kettenorden – Ordre International de Bibliophilie Créatice (1969). He was notably the sole foreign participant invited to exhibit during the 500th-anniversary celebrations of English printing in 1976. His achievements garnered numerous awards, including distinctions from the Anna Godlewska Foundation (1968) and Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation (1970). In 1985, he received the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta from Edward Raczyński, President of the Polish government-in-exile. Gliwa married Maria Ludwika Zielińska in 1960, who actively supported his creative and therapeutic endeavors. Stanislaw Gliwa died in London, England on 7 July 1986. Initially interred at the columbarium near St Andrew Bobola Church, his ashes were later reburied in the family grave at the cemetery in Słocina near Rzeszów, Poland, in 1997. Gliwa's work is not currently represented in UK public collections.

Related books

Joanna Hałaczkiewicz, ‘Dzika kaczka i ogórki. Jak Stanisław Gliwa z Aleksandrem Jantą wydawali antologię poezji japońskiej (The Wild Duck and the Cucumbers: How Stanisław Gliwa and Aleksander Janta Published an Anthology of Japanese Poetry’, Rabka-Zdrój 2018, pp. 94–109
Marzenna Gurtowska, ‘Wśród cymeliów księgozbioru artysty książki Stanisława Gliwy (1910–1986). Ze zbiorów Wojewódzkiej Biblioteki Publicznej – Książnicy Kopernikańskiej w Toruniu/Among the Treasures of the Book Artist Stanisław Gliwa’s (1910–1986) Library. From the Collections of the Provincial Public Library – Nicolaus Copernicus Library in Toruń, Acta Universitatis Nicolai Copernici’, Acta Universitatis Nicolai Copernici, Bibliologia, Vol. 5, 2007, pp. 319–351
Wojciech Kaczorowski, Stanisław Gliwa - Typograf: Muzeum Narodowe we Wrocławiu, wrzesień - październik 1990/Stanisław Gliwa – Typographer: National Museum in Wrocław, September – October 1990 (Wroclaw: Muzeum Narodowe, 1990)
R. T. Risk, Stanislaw Gliwa, Private Printer, The Private Library Journal, Spring 1979, Vol. 2
‘Jurzykowski Foundation Awards, 1970’, The Polish Review, Vol. 16, Spring 1971, pp. 105-113
‘Love and Marriage in Matter of Days’, Melton Mowbray Times and Vale of Belvoir Gazette, 10 October 1958, p. 1

Related organisations

London Chapel of Private Press Printers (member)
Mabledon Park Psychiatric Hospital, Tonbridge (therapeutic printmaker)

Ben Uri Research Unit

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

Stanislaw Gliwa artist