Stefan Knapp

Stefan Knapp (11 July 1921 – 12 October 1996) was a Polish painter and sculptor, who worked in Great Britain. He developed and patented a technique of painting with enamel paint on steel, facilitating decorating public architectural structures.

Biography

Knapp was born in Biłgoraj. His father's name was Antoni and his mother was Julia, née Wnuk.

In 1935 he began studies at the Lwów Polytechnic. After the outbreak of World War II the Soviet Union occupied Lwów, murdered Knapp's father and sent Stefan to a gulag in Siberia. There, among other things, he worked building schools for Russian children who had been orphaned because their parents had been imprisoned or murdered for political reasons. While in the Gulag, because artistic endeavors were limited, he made chess sets out of bread and playing cards out of trash for his fellow prisoners.

He was released in 1942 after the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement was signed between Poland and Soviet Union. He served as an officer and Spitfire pilot in the Royal Air Force. While in the RAF Knapp pursued his art by painting or sketching portraits of his fellow pilots in 318 Squadron.

His experience in the Gulag and as an RAF pilot caused him to suffer from recurring nightmares and insomnia for many years. Consequently, he used his art as a form of therapy. In the late 1940s this resulted in a series of works titled Gulag. The works were noted for many experimental techniques.

Knapp was known for producing murals of unprecedented size with materials which were meant to last for thousands of years. In September 2021, the directors of Valley Health System and the mayor of Paramus announced that they would be installing fifty pieces of the mural in various spots along the campus of the new Valley Hospital, which is being built in Paramus and scheduled to open in 2023.

For his military service he was awarded the Virtuti Militari cross. Knapp was the only Pole ever to receive the Churchill Fellowship, which he used to study and expand his knowledge of murals in Guatemala, India, Iran, Japan and Mexico. His other awards included the Knight's Cross of Polonia Restituta and the Cross of Valor. He was one of the best known Polish artists working in Great Britain. He wrote an autobiography "Kwadratowe Słońce" (The Square Sun) about his life in the Siberian gulag.

He died in 1996 at his studio in London, still working on his art. Thousands of people attended his funeral in London.

A retrospective exhibition of some of Knapp's best known works is currently installed at the Mid Wales Arts Centre, Maesmawr, Caersws, Newtown SY17 5SB

Gallery