Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1912 Żerków, Poland

Died: 2005 Crewe, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1947

Other name/s: Tadeusz Wąs

Biography

Artist Tadeusz Was was born in Żerków, Poland, in 1912, as one of five children. Most of the family worked on the farm, with only his father, who had a higher education, working as a teacher in the village school. At the age of 22, Was moved to Kraków to enrol at the Polish Institute of Fine Art, where he studied stained glass and mural art. After graduating in 1939, he was drafted into the Polish Army and became part of a group that was pushed into Hungary by the German occupying forces. He later served in Italy during the Second World War—taking part in the harrowing Battle of Monte Cassino—and in North Africa. At the end of the war, Tadeusz was stationed in Rome, where he joined the Oddział Kultury i Prasy 2. Korpusu (Polish Public Relations 2nd Corps) as part of the Anders Army. During the war, he created numerous sketches, which he used to illustrate Melchior Wańkowicz’s acclaimed first volume, Bitwa o Monte Cassino (The Battle of Monte Cassino). He also designed the dust jacket for Jan Bielatowicz’s book on the Italian Campaign, Laur Kapitolu i Wianek Ruty (The Capitol Laurel and the Rue Wreath). Pursuing painting again in Rome, he was awarded a Silver Medal at the 1946 International Art Exhibition. With the end of the war, Was faced the choice of returning to Poland to live under Communist rule or going into exile.

Was was officially discharged from the Polish Army in 1947 and chose exile, relocating to the UK, where he was placed in a Displaced Persons Camp in Doddington near Nantwich, Cheshire. This meant living in barracks once more, as the camp was situated on a former military base. Functioning as a microcosm of Polish life, the camp featured its own Polish shop, church, cinema, and school. Was quickly resumed his artistic practice and was assigned painting and decorating duties by the Resettlement Officer, often creating scenes of Polish village life. In 1951, he married another Polish refugee, Aniela, and the couple had two sons, Tadeusz and Stanisław. By 1959, the family had relocated nearby to Crewe.

Was’ body of work includes wartime sketches, paintings, and soot-covered metal sheets known as ‘sadzoryty’. During his time as a Forward Patrol member, he produced detailed sketches of enemy terrain and positions, as well as drawings created during rest periods and leave, many of which were later used for the aforementioned book illustrations. In the 1950s and 1960s, his paintings became increasingly abstract as he embraced abstract expressionism, often characterised by thick impasto, bold brushwork, vibrant colours, and dynamic compositions. Combining figurative and abstract elements, his work emphasised texture and the tactile quality of the painted surface, with richly layered, carved-like paint, enhanced by a thick emulsion and oil finish, evoking the appearance of baked enamel. Figures were frequently outlined in bold black lines, giving the compositions a stained-glass-like clarity that reflected his training in Kraków. In both abstraction and figuration, Was often returned to a haunting image of a dead child from the war. His ‘Soot Cuts’ were distinctive monoprints resembling woodcuts or linocuts, created using a technique conceived during the war and refined in the 1950s. This involved drawing on a soot-covered metal sheet and pressing it onto specially treated paper to permanently fix the image. Occasionally, his angular and geometric depictions of the human form showed a clear Cubist influence.

For many years, Tadeusz Was played an active role in the art scenes of Crewe and Manchester. From the 1960s to the 1980s, he was represented by the Jellicoe Gallery in Manchester, and during the 1960s and 1970s, he held a part-time evening teaching position at Crewe College of Art while working to improve his still-broken English. He also founded the artistic collective, Group Five, which regularly exhibited across the northwest of England. One of his most successful solo exhibitions was Lost in Crewe, held at the Museum and Art Gallery in Warrington in 1991, where 20 paintings were sold during the private view. Throughout his career, his drawings frequently appeared in British Polish community publications, including Dziennik Polski (The Polish Daily) and Tydzień Polski (The Polish Weekly. Tadeusz Was died in Crewe, Cheshire, England in 2005 and a posthumous solo exhibition was held at the Portico Library & Gallery in Manchester shortly after his death. His work is not represented in the UK public domain.

Related books

Jan Bielatowicz (with illustrations by Tadeusz Was), Laur Kapitolu i Wianek Ruty (London: Nakładem Katolickiego ośrodka wydawniczego 'Veritas', 1954)
Melchior Wańkowicz (with illustrations by Tadeusz Was), Bitwa o Monte Cassino, vol. 1-3 (Rome: Wydawnictwo oddz. kultury i prasy drugiego polskiego korpusu, 1945-1947)

Related organisations

Crewe College of Art (teacher )
Dziennik Polski (The Polish Daily) (illustrator )
Group Five (founder)
Tydzień Polski (The Polish Weekly) (illustrator)

Selected exhibitions

Tadeusz Was (solo exhibition), Portico Library & Gallery, Manchester (2005)
Lost in Crewe (solo exhibition), Museum and Art Gallery, Warrington (1991)
Gallery artist, Jellicoe Gallery, Manchester (1960s-1980s)
Exhibitions with Group Five (details unconfirmed)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Tadeusz Was]