Franciszek Bunsch

Franciszek Bunsch (9 August 1926 – 23 March 2025) was a Polish painter and graphic artist, representative of the Kraków school of workshop graphics, specializing in the metaphorical vision of reality. A longtime lecturer and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Son of painter, Adam Bunsch and younger brother of the set designer Ali Bunsch.

Bunsch also illustrated books and did graphic design for publications, preparing such items as: series of woodcuts for J. de la Madelène's "Pan na Piaskowy Zamku" (which won 2nd prize at the 2nd National Exhibition of Books and Illustrations, Warsaw 1955) and "Ballads and romances" Mickiewicza (awarded a distinction at the National Competition for illustrations to the works of Adam Mickiewicz, Warsaw 1956), Tadeusz Kudliński, "The mask and the face of the theatre" (1963, with his wife, a painter Krystyna Bunsch-Gruchalska), as well as illustrating the ancient trilogy Olimpias, Parmenion, Aleksander with Karol Bunsch.

In the years 1960–1980 he designed a series of playing cards, printed on a large scale by Krakowskie Zakłady Wyrobów Papierowych (currently the Trefl Playing Card Company), which then became part of the canon of Polish card designs. Bunsch died on 23 March 2025, at the age of 98.