Franciszek Kmita

Franciszek Kmita lived in the years 1926-2013. He studied Painting in 1947-53 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (the studio of Jan Sokołowski, Eugeniusz Arct and Michał Bylina) and Graphics (the studio of Andrzej Rudziński). In 1951, while still a student, he won second prize at the painting exhibition at the Youth and Student Festival in Berlin (the painting "Reading" was purchased for the museum of the Berlin Academy). In 1954, he participated in the 4th National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Warsaw. After graduation, he settled permanently in Kazimierz Dolny on the Vistula River. With time, he became a well-known and respected local personality, engaged as an artist and community worker. He became the president of the Society for the Preservation of Monuments in Kazimierz, independently reconstructing a historic tenement house for his own house with a gallery, and the artist is increasingly known outside his city thanks to numerous travels, exhibitions in many countries around the world, articles, interviews and media reports. His artistic creativity is stylized realism with elements of post-impressionism.