Background
Kazimierz Mikulski was born on February 10, 1918 in Krakow, Poland.
illustrator painter set designer
Kazimierz Mikulski was born on February 10, 1918 in Krakow, Poland.
In 1938, Kazimierz enrolled at Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied under the guidance of Kazimierz Sichulski. Some time later, he attended Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule Krakau, where Fryderyk Pautsch was his mentor.
During the period from 1945 till 1946, Mikulski attended the Dramatic Studio at the Old Theater in Krakow.
After studies, Kazimierz performed as an actor at Tadeusz Kantor's theatre.
Being a member of the Group of Young Artists, Kazimierz took part in different exhibitions, which took place in Krakow.
Also, in 1948, Mikulski participated in the 1st Exhibition of Contemporary Art at the Krakow Palace of Art. During the period from 1948 to 1979, he worked as a scenographer and visual director of Groteska Theatre in Krakow. During that time he participated in around fifty plays as a stage designer and costume designer.
At the turn of the 1950's, human figures with distinct cheeks, as well as game and fantastic flora in almost Arcadian visions began to dominate Mikulski's works. At the same time, his expression was, in terms of the arrangement, very moderate and markedly linear. Some of his early canvases evoked melancholic, often circus poetics through their muted earthly colours and the predominance of free space.
In 1963, he illustrated Ludwik Jerzy Kern's book "Ferdinand the Great".
In the 1970's, Kazimierz started to create collages. He used reproductions of iconic works from the European Renaissance (Botticelli) and later also paintings from the Dutch Golden Age. The painter combined them with images of insects and birds and secondarily intervened in them with black ink.
In the first half of the 1990's, the painter created a series of twenty five drawings "Cat's Shadow in Secret on a Hill".
In painting, Mikulski liked to associate various elements on the basis of kinship, suggested by the imagination, not reality. He referred to the "logic" of a dream (including erotic subtexts), fantasy, to fairy tales or fables, to images recorded in memory and represented in a spontaneous manner.