Józef Grabski

Dr. hab. Józef Grabski (born 1950) is a Polish born art historian, he is also a director of the Institute for Art Historical Research IRSA since its founding in 1979, also a publisher and editor-in-chief of Artibus et Historiae.

Life and work Grabski was born in 1950 in post-war Warsaw. After attending the Lycée Français in Warsaw (1968), Grabski studied art history at Warsaw University (1968-1972) and graduated under the supervision of Professor Jan Białostocki, specializing in the iconography of Venetian Renaissance painting. Grabski was chosen by Henryk Stażewski (laureate of the Herder Prize in 1972) to be awarded the Herder Prize scholarship. After several scholarships (including the Karolina Lanckorońska scholarship), and research stays at the Fondazione Cini (Venice), Grabski continued to study art history and philosophy at the University of Vienna and gained his Ph.D. in 1976 on the subject of Leon Chwistek and "zones theory," under the supervision of Hermann Filitz and Günter Heinz. He earned his habilitation at the Jagiellonian University. After research stays in Florence at Fondazione R. Longhi, and The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti, he wrote numerous publications about Algardi, Donatello, Lorenzo Lotto, Padovano, Tintoretto, and Titian.

With Jan Białostocki, André Chastel, Hermann Fillitz, W. Roger Rearick and Federico Zeri he founded the IRSA Institute for Art Historical Research in 1979 and became its director.

Grabski founded and became editor-in-chief of the scholarly art history journal Artibus et Historiae in 1980, and the IRSA Foundation for Culture Promotion in 2011.

Grabski provided advice, or co-created numerous international collections, for both public institutions and private individuals such as the H. Abel Collection (Munich), the Barbara Piasecka Johnson Collection (Johnson & Johnson, New Jersey), and The Gordon Collection (London).

Grabski has organized numerous exhibitions such as, “Opus Sacrum” (1990, Warsaw, Poland), "École de Paris" (1998, Cracow and Wrocław, Poland), Iwo Zaniewski's "The Beauty of Gentleness", "New Harmony Paintings" (2008, Shanghai, China) and others.

One of the main missions in the work of Józef Grabski is to promote art, culture and history of Central and Eastern Europe, especially Poland, and throughout the world. He organized the "Opening Up" Exhibition of six prominent contemporary Polish artists in the Hammer Galleries (1991, New York), and published on the Lady with an Ermine of Leonardo da Vinci, while it was borrowed to the US for the exhibition "Circa 1492. Art In the Age of Exploration" (1991-1992, National Gallery of Art, Washington). He organized numerous exhibitions in Poland and abroad, for Polish artists such as Alina Szapocznikow, Ryszard Winiarski, Leon Tarasewicz, Jerzy Tchórzewski. Józef Grabski is a board member of public or private institutions promoting art and history in Poland, Ukraine and China and member or the Rotary Club: Cracow.

Awards and nominations Herder-scholarship in 1972 Advisory Board member of the “Podhorce Castle” Foundation, Lvov (Ukraine) adviser to the Artistic Events at the Great Wall in China, Beijing in 2014 Special Prize of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in recognition of contribution to Polish culture in 2015 Advisory Board member of the Wawel Royal Castle Museum Advisory Board member of the National Museum in Cracow Advisory Board member of the Lvov Art Gallery, Lvov, Ukraine member of Jury of the Marian Sokołowski Award member of Honorary Committee for the Reconstruction of the Tyniec Benedictine Abbey, Poland Board member of the Alexandra Exter Association