Tadeusz Zieliński was born in Trzebinia, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland) in 1907. Following the invasions of Poland during the Second World War, he eventually arrived in exile in Scotland with the Polish Anders' Army in 1948. He subsequently studied at the Sir John Cass School of Art, London in 1950. Zieliński is known for his monumental and religious sculptures.
Artist, sculptor, and muralist, Tadeusz Zieliński was born in Trzebinia, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland) on 4 February 1907. He showed sculptural talent from an early age, and when he was thirteen he worked alongside his father during the reconstruction of a church in his home town, renovating the polychrome plaster figures of saints, wooden figures, and a sculpture of Christ on the cross. Preparing to work as a sculptor, Zieliński studied at the State School of Decorative Arts and Artistic Industry in Kraków from 1925–28, where in 1932 he also gained an Interior Design diploma from the Faculty of Interior Design and Furniture. Following four years as a carpenter and furniture designer in Kraków and as a secondary school teacher in Borysław, Poland (now Ukraine), Zieliński was interned in a Soviet camp during the early stages of the Second World War. He was released following a military agreement in 1941, joining General Władysław Anders’ Polish army in its circuitous journey to western Europe. After surviving malaria and jaundice while stationed in Iran in 1943, Zieliński remained in the Middle East for five years, where he made several monumental structures. At the end of 1948, like many soldiers from the Anders’ Army, he was transferred to a military camp in Scotland, and after demobilisation moved to London, England.
In London Zieliński was active within the Polish art scene, participating in the first exhibition of the Polish art collective Grupa 49 [Group 49], organised by the founder of the Polish School in London, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko at the Kingley Gallery in 1949. Zieliński’s works were shown alongside other Polish 'Anders' artists including Ryszard Demel and Leon Piesowocki. In 1950, he began studying sculpture at the Sir John Cass School of Art, where many other Polish former soldiers in exile studied. He was subsequently one of a small number of Polish artists in England who was asked to contribute to schemes of sacred art and to the decoration of the interiors of churches. However, what made Zieliński unique amongst his peers was his experimental use of different media, from wood carving, to metal, stone, and refined concrete, as well as his handling of materials (Zybert, 2017). One of his earliest works was a life-size figure of Our Lady of Light, carved from elm wood, commissioned by the Convent of the Ursuline Sisters in 1948. The statue was placed in the hallway of St Angela’s Ursuline School for Girls in Forest Gate, London, where it is still located.
Over the following decade Zieliński produced several other sculptures for religious spaces, many of which also addressed the theme of the Virgin Mary, including a life-size painted linden wood statue of the Mother Divine of Lourdes for the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, London in 1955. By 1959, he had made eight black and grey granite gravestones, located variously in London's Brompton Cemetery, Streatham Park Cemetery, Fulham Cemetery in North Sheen, and Acton Cemetery. In 1961, Zieliński was commissioned, together with architect Aleksander Klecki, to rebuild the altar and the main nave of St Andrew Bobola Church in Shepherd's Bush, London W12. For the altar Zieliński designed and constructed a sculpture of Christ the King, almost three metres high, in aluminium, which became an iconic image in the Church’s logo. Bohusz-Szyszko commented that the sculpture was ‘moving and beautiful’ (Zybert, 2017). A year later, Zieliński produced 10 bas-reliefs, made of refined concrete, for the interior of Polish Millenium House, Birmingham, which had been designed by Polish architect Stanisław Pomian-Połujan as a monument for the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Poland.
Zieliński was a regular participant in London’s Polish artistic community, meeting many artists and intellectuals, such as Wladyslaw R. Szomański, in Polish cafes. Between 1953 and 1993 he organised and attended many meetings held on the first Thursday of every month at the Polish Social and Cultural Association (POSK) in Hammersmith. Located in POSK’s Lowiczanka Restaurant, these meetings were recognised as one of the most important opportunities for free intellectual discussion. He was also an active member and vice-president of the Confraternity of Polish Artists in Great Britain, established in 1975. In 1977, his works were exhibited in the Five Sculptors show at POSK Gallery, alongside works by Andrzej Bobrowski, Jan Marian Kościałkowski, Jerzy Stocki, and Aleksander Werner, leading to Bohusz-Szyszko's comments on Zieliński’s burgeoning career and his ‘strong creations’ (Zybert, 2017). Tadeusz Zieliński died in London, England on 25 November 1993. In 2020, London's Polish community mounted a successful campaign, backed by ex-Islington mayor Stefan Kasprzyk, to save Zieliński's mural from the soon-to-be demolished Camberwell Green Magistrates Court and placed permanently in the POSK building, where it remains in the public domain. His work is not held in any other UK public collections.