Dimensions: 26 x 39 cm
signed and dated l.d.: 'AK 08'
signed, dated and described on the reverse: 'Alfons Kulakowski | Wętkaży 2008 | 26x39 | oil panel'.
Biography
In the early 1930s, he and his family were forcibly relocated to Bakchar in Siberia, from where he escaped in 1944. In 1945, he was admitted to the second year of the painting academy in Alma-Ata. In his third year, he interrupted his studies to continue them in Leningrad. After four years, however, he returned to the Alma-Ata academy, and was admitted to the fifth year on the basis of the works he presented. In 1953 he moved to Samara, and three years later was admitted to the Union of Artists of the USSR. In 1992 he returned to Alma-Ata. In 1997 he came to Poland as a repatriate and settled in Witoszow near Ilawa. Painting helped the artist find family members scattered around the world. In Moscow he met his cousins Wanda and Helena after 27 years of separation, and in Samara he met his cousin's uncle brother Edik, whom he had not seen for 37 years. His brother Kazik, who lives in Florida, learned about the exhibition from a Polish radio station.In February 2009, Alfons Kulakowski's house burned down, along with more than 6,000 works. Only the works that were exhibited in Brussels at the time survived. The artist did not abandon his activities - he came to terms with the great loss, drawing from it a kind of inspiration for further artistic pursuits. He claimed that the new works had changed to be more philosophical.
