Zygmunt Haupt was born in Ułaszkowice, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary (now Ulashkivtsi, Ukraine) in 1907. He studied architecture at the Lwów University of Technology. During the Second World, he served in the Polish army with whom he arrived in England, where he exhibited widely as a painter. After the war, he moved to the United States, focusing on writing.
Artist and writer Zygmunt Haupt was born on 5 March 1907 in Ułaszkowice, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary (now Ulashkivtsi, Ukraine). He was brought up in a family of educators – his father was a school inspector and his mother a teacher. He began his education in Tarnopol and completed secondary school at the Mikołaj Kopernik Gymnasium in Lwów in 1924 or 1925. He subsequently studied architecture at the Lwów University of Technology. Following his father’s death, Haupt moved to Paris in 1931, where he studied urban planning and, significantly, began to paint and write – deeply influenced by the city's artistic and intellectual atmosphere. Returning to Poland in the early 1930s, he worked in various design roles, while immersing himself in the creative circles of Lwów. His first short stories appeared in Dziennik Polski in 1937. When war broke out in 1939, Haupt served as an officer in General Stanisław Maczek’s 10th Motorised Cavalry Brigade. After escaping through Hungary to France, he fought in the 1940 campaign, survived the evacuation at Dunkirk, and later rejoined the re-formed Polish forces in Britain. He initially settled in Scotland before moving to London.
The war years in England were also a period of prolific artistic activity for Haupt. In 1941, he took part in a major touring exhibition of works by Allied artists organised by the British Council at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, among other venues. Polish artists comprised the largest national contribution to the show, and Haupt’s painting Review of Polish Troops in France was commended for its authentic characterisation and effective capture of movement (The Scotsman 1941, p. 7). Haupt was one of five Polish soldier-artists—including Stanisław Mikula, Antoni Wasilewski, Andrzej Wart (Bunsch), and Aleksander Żyw—who formed a core group that exhibited across England between 1941 and 1944. Supported by the Polish Ministry of Information, these exhibitions toured widely, reaching both major cities and smaller towns, including Lincoln, Bradford, Belfast, Rochdale, Bristol, Liverpool, and London. One of Haupt’s most frequently shown works from this period was Listening to the News, an oil painting of soldiers at ease in their tent. The Yorkshire Post described it as ‘the very essence of troops at ease’ (1941, p. 6), while the Rochdale Observer called it ‘almost stark in its treatment, but finely suggestive’ (1944, p. 4). The Liverpool Daily Post described the five artists as possessing ‘real and substantial talent’, noting that the exhibitions reflected ‘great vitality and vigour’ (1943, p. 2). One reviewer remarked that the collective body of Polish soldiers’ artwork conveyed ‘an air of remote loneliness’ that resonated deeply with audiences (Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 11 November 1941, p. 6). Many of the works focused on wartime subjects: military life, air raids, and landscapes of exile. Though created under difficult conditions, the works were strikingly vibrant and spontaneous. Haupt’s contributions stood out for their emotional subtlety—portraying the quiet dignity of displaced soldiers rather than scenes of combat. In 1944, Haupt took part in what was considered the most significant Polish exhibition in Britain during the war: a show organised by the Society of Polish Artists in Great Britain at the Allied Circle in London. The exhibition featured works by twenty painters and sculptors who had remained active in exile since 1939, including Haupt, Aleksander Żyw, Marian Żuławski, and Feliks Topolski (Supruniuk 2023, p. 354).
In addition to exhibiting widely, Haupt was involved in the artistic and educational infrastructure of the émigré Polish art community. In 1942, he was among a group of painters and sculptors who made use of the ‘Polish painting studio’ in London, a space created to support ‘homeless’ artists in exile. Managed by Henryk Gotlib, the studio offered lectures on pre-war Polish art, critiques of work, and access to a growing library. Haupt shared the space with artists including Bronka Michałowska, Rimma Szturm de Sztrem and Piotr Potworowski (Supruniuk 2023, p. 345). Demobilised in 1946, Haupt moved to America, settling in New Orleans with his wife and son. In 1951, he joined the broadcaster, Voice of America and relocated to New York, later moving to Washington, D.C., where he worked for Ameryka magazine under the US Information Agency until his retirement. In the USA he increasingly focused on literature, gradually setting aside visual art. His stories and memoirs appeared in key émigré journals such as Wiadomości (London) and Kultura (Paris). In 1963, his only published book, Pierścień z papieru (The Paper Ring), appeared in Paris and earned him the Kultura Literary Award. In 1971, he received the Kościelski Foundation Prize in Geneva for his contribution to Polish literature. Zygmunt Haupt died in Winchester, Virginia, USA on 10 May 1975. In the UK public domain, his work is held in the collection of the National Trust for Scotland.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Zygmunt Haupt ]
Publications related to [Zygmunt Haupt ] in the Ben Uri Library