Topolski feliks biography

(1907 - 1989)

FELIKS TOPOLSKI painter, draughtsman and illustrator, was born in Warsaw, the son of an actor. He studied at the Academy of Art in Warsaw, and then in Italy and Paris. He settled in England in 1935 and became a British subject in 1947.

Punks, Princes and Protests: The Chronicles of Feliks Topolski RA

From 1940-45 he was appointed Official Polish War Artist, and visited every front except the Pacific, producing a prolific record of the Second World War which was widely published. He developed a habit of working at speed, and his work has a quality of immediacy as a result. An artist reporter, he travelled to every major historical event for over forty years, and sketched many leading world figures.

His work has appeared in publications around the world and he exhibited in three continents. In 1955 he was awarded the gold medal of honour by the International Fine Arts Council, and in 1974 received an honorary doctorate from the University of Krakow. At the age of seventy-three he decided to join his writer/ph Feliks Topolski — Topolski Studio ZIHUC