Born: 1912 Poland
Died: 1973 London, England
Year of Migration to the UK: 1947
Biography
Artist Zygmunt Turkiewicz was born on 28 December 1912 in Chełm, Russian Empire (now Poland). He pursued his artistic education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1933–39), where he studied painting and drawing under Felicjan Kowarski, and interior architecture under Józef Czajkowski. Turkiewicz’s early interest in decorative arts, including weaving, would later influence his textured painting surfaces and experimental techniques.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Turkiewicz was mobilised as a reserve officer in the Polish army. Following the September Campaign of 1939, he was captured by Soviet forces and sent to internment camps on the Kola Peninsula. In 1941, he was transferred to the Lubyanka prison in Moscow. That same year, following the Sikorski–Mayski Agreement between the Polish government-in-exile and the USSR, Turkiewicz was released and joined the newly formed Polish II Corps under General Władysław Anders. Within the army, he was appointed head of the art section of the Department of Propaganda and Culture, Polish Armed Forces in the East. As the army returned to western Europe, he organised numerous exhibitions of Polish soldiers' art in cities across the Middle East, including Tehran, Baghdad, Alexandria, Cairo, Damascus, Beirut, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and in Florence and Rome. Turkiewicz also worked as an accredited war correspondent-artist, which granted him access to the front lines. He witnessed key battles fought by the Polish II Corps, including the 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino. His wartime drawings were published that same year in the illustrated album Montecassino – Szkice Zygmunta Turkiewicza z walk 2. Polskiego Korpusu (Monte Cassino – Sketches by Zygmunt Turkiewicz from the Fights of the 2nd Polish Corps). After the Italian campaign, Turkiewicz remained in Italy for a short time. In 1946, his works were included in an exhibition in Rome of twelve Polish painters who created artworks related to the battle of Monte Cassino. Their artistic merit was highly praised in the catalogue introduction by the renowned Italian art critic and Futurist painter Gino Severini (UMK website).
In 1947, Turkiewicz eventually settled in London, joining the postwar wave of Polish émigrés who chose not to return to a Soviet-controlled homeland. He actively participated in the Polish émigré art scene in London, joining the Association of Polish Artists in Great Britain (APA), exhibiting his work and contributing to group shows that promoted fellow displaced artists. He also regularly contributed critical essays and art reviews to the émigré press, including the influential Paris-based journal Kultura, as well as Życie and Orzeł Biały. Through these writings, he helped bridge the artistic dialogues between exiled Polish intellectuals and their British counterparts. In 1955, Turkiewicz moved to Blackheath in southeast London, where he lived with his English wife. His early work in Britain included atmospheric paintings of London’s streets and docklands, executed in subdued palettes and balanced compositions that reflected both realist and modernist tendencies. His London cityscapes were noted for their quiet intensity and formal balance, and he soon began to evolve a personal language that blended his Central European training with the experience of displacement and adaptation.
From the late 1950s onward, his work became increasingly abstract. Influenced by his wartime travels through Egypt and Italy, he developed a technique reminiscent of fresco, building up and then scraping away layered surfaces to create textured, weathered effects. These compositions often recalled the visual language of ancient ruins or textiles, echoing his earlier interest in weaving. His works stood out for their tactile surfaces and refined colour harmonies, with critics noting their fusion of painting and low-relief form. Turkiewicz exhibited widely in the UK and internationally. He held his first exhibition at the Beaux-Arts Gallery in London in 1955. In 1959, he was featured in a two-man exhibition at the Grabowski Gallery in London (founded by a fellow Polish émigré), alongside Polish modernist painter Józef Czapski. In 1961, he participated in the group show Tension and Contrast, also at the Grabowski Gallery, which brought together avant-garde Polish émigré artists working in Britain. His most significant solo exhibition was held in January 1963 at Halima Nałęcz’s Drian Galleries in London. The show included 47 paintings and 12 gouaches and drawings, and it was accompanied by a catalogue that helped consolidate Turkiewicz’s reputation as a distinctive figure in postwar modernist circles. He continued to exhibit throughout the 1960s, taking part in shows at Imperial College London in 1970 and abroad, such as the 1963 exhibition of Polish graphic artists in Milwaukee, USA. Zygmunt Turkiewicz died in London, England on 26 January 1973 after being struck by a car. Posthumously, his work was shown in the gallery at POSK, the Polish cultural and social centre in Hammersmith, west London. A substantial collection of his paintings, drawings, and writings was entrusted to the Archiwum Emigracji (Emigration Archive) at the University Museum in Toruń, Poland. In the UK public domain, his work is represented in the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery.
Related books
- Jan Wiktor Sienkiewicz, ‘Wyprowadzeni z nieludzkiej ziemi: artyści wokół Andersa [From the Inhuman Land: Artists of the Anders Army], Art of the East Europe, 2014, pp. 409–417
- Monte Cassino: Szkice Wojenne Zygmunta Turkiewicza ze Zbiorów Archiwum Emigracji w Toruniu, W 70. Rocznicę Bitwy = War Sketches by Zygmunt Turkiewicz from the Collection of the Archives Of Polish Emigration in Toruń, on The 70th Anniversary of the Battle (Warsaw: Kancelaria Senatu, 2014)
- David Buckman, Artists in Britain Since 1945 (Bristol: Art Dictionaries LTD, 1998)
- Akty i abstrakty Zygmunta Turkiewicza 1913-1973, exh. cat. (Krakow: Galeria Stowarzyszenia ‘Wspólnota Polska’, 1997)
- 'Polish Art in Britain', The Times, 14 November 1964, p. 5
- Juan Ramón Jiménez, Florian Śmieja, and Zygmunt Turkiewicz (London: Oficyna Poetów i Malarzy, 1961)
- 'Polish Painters', The Times, 27 November 1961, p. 14
- 'Art for the Adventurous', The Guardian, 12 November 1959, p. 9
- Louis Dudek, En Mexico. Drawings by Zygmunt Turkiewicz (Toronto: Published by Contact Press, 1958)
- Herminia Naglerowa, Zygmunt Turkiewicz, Związek Pisarzy Polskich na Obczyźnie, Mickiewicz żywy: książka zbiorowa (London: B. Świderski, 1955)
- Jan Olechowski and Zygmunt Turkiewicz, Chwila Nocna: Poezje 1945-1950 (London: Oficyna Poetów i Malarzy, 1950)
- Montecassino: Szkice Zygmunta Turkiewicza z Walk 2 Polskiego Korpusu (Rome: Nakł. Oddziału Propagandy i Kultury APW, 1944)
Related organisations
- Association of Polish Artists (member)
- Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts (student)
Related web links
- APA
- ‘Artisti. Grafici, Scenografi, Pittori, Scultori [Artists. Graphic Designers, Set Designers, Painters, Sculptors], article in Italian on the artistic work of Polish soldiers in exile
- Biography of Zygmunt Turkiewicz
- Catalogue entry for the painting Don Quixote by Zygmunt Turkiewicz, Agra-Art Auction House
- Jan Wiktor Sienkiewicz, ‘Gino Severini o polskim malarstwie. Siedemdziesięciolecie wystawy polskich malarzy-żołnierzy w Rzymie w 1944 roku [Gino Severini on Polish Painting. The Seventieth Anniversary of the Exhibition of Polish Soldier-Painters in Rome in 1944]
- Jan Wiktor Sienkiewicz, Tadeusz Wojnarski. Artist of the Polish II Corps under General Władysław Anders
- Martyna Nowicka, ‘Soldiers, Artists: The Exhibitions of Anders’ Army’, Culture Poland
- The Magnificent Nine. Polish Art in Great Britain in the XXth Century
Selected exhibitions
- Polish artist show, POSK Gallery, Hammersmith, London (1985)
- Solo exhibition, POSK Gallery, London (1978)
- Polish artist show, Imperial College, London (1970)
- Zygmunt Turkiewicz, Cassell Gallery, London (1966)
- Zygmunt Turkiewicz, Drian Galleries, London (1963)
- Tension and Contrast, Grabowski Gallery, London (1961)
- Black and Red, Grabowski Gallery, London (1960–1)
- Joseph Czapski and Zygmunt Turkiewicz, Grabowski Gallery, London (1959)
- Zygmunt Turkiewicz, Beaux-Arts Gallery, London (1955)
