Jerzy Luczak-Szewczyk

Jerzy Luczak-Szewczyk (born Wojciech Stanisław Szewczyk, 2 January 1923 - 12 April 1975, Örebro, Sweden) was a Polish-born Swedish painter, drawer and sculptor.

Biography Wojciech Stanisław Szewczyk was born in Lublin, Poland and lived there during his childhood together with his mother Wincentyna , his father Franciszek Szewczyk and his sister Janina. Already as a child he was interested in painting and when the family in the late 1920s moved to the outskirts of Warsaw, he became acquainted with an established artist who taught him different techniques. During his teens he began studies in art at schools in Warsaw. However, after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, he had to end his education as German authorities took him to do forced labour in the spring of 1940.

The refugee Luczak was sent to East Prussia, where he at first was commanded to work at a farm near the town Angerapp (present-day Ozyorsk, Kaliningrad Oblast) and later in a forced labour camp in Allenstein (Olsztyn). In the autumn of 1943 he escaped to Warsaw where a relative hid him. Since he was wanted by German authorities and lived under the threat of execution if he was found, he had to assume a new identity. Through contacts with the Polish Home Army (Polish: Armia Krajowa) he got false documents and the name Jerzy Luczak.

When Jerzy Luczak-Szewczyk arrived in Sweden, the immigration authorities sent him to Örebro (a town situated in the middle of the country) where he got a job in a photographers company. At the same time he began his career as a professional artist, but during the first years in Sweden he could not get documents from Poland to certify his true identity. Therefore, he used his false name Jerzy Luczak as his artist name. he continued to sign his works J. Luczak. It was not until the mid-1960s that he began to sign with both surnames. In 1950 Jerzy Luczak-Szewczyk married Swedish-born Inga Johansson in Örebro.

Career and exhibitions Jerzy Luczak-Szewczyk worked mainly in oil painting, but he also used other media, such as drawing, stucco, sculpture and mosaic. Between his first Swedish exhibition in 1946 in Eskilstuna and his last in 1962 in Örebro, he had several exhibitions of his own and participated in group exhibitions. During the 1950s he also carried out decorations on public and private owned buildings, especially mural paintings and reliefs.

In the beginning of his career, Luczak's subjects were illustrations of his memories from the war, still lifes, portraits and landscapes. His paintings varied in quality, but he continued to work and to develop his skills. The paintings from the 1950s, especially his city scenes and landscapes, show that he gradually went from a style inspired by Cézanne, to an increasingly freer and personal way of expression. This resulted in further exhibitions for example in Paris (Galerie Mouffe 1970), Biarritz (Galerie Vallombreuse 1970), New York City (Galerie Internationale 1970) and in London (B. H. Corner Gallery 1971).

Jerzy Luczak-Szewczyk died 12 April 1975 in Örebro, Sweden. In 1970 he was appointed honorary member with silver medal of the Accademia Internazionale Tommaso Campanella in Rome. He is represented in Swedish private and public collections and in private collections in France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.