Lubomir Tomaszewski: About The Artist

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About Lubomir Tomaszewski

(from "Towards Emotionalism: Lubomir Tomaszewski’s views on art" by Ewa Bobrowska-Jakubowska)

Biographical elements

Lubomir Tomaszewski was born in Warsaw. He became interested in the visual arts by early childhood. He claims that he learned to draw before he learned to speak. He is the third generation of artists in the family on his mother’s side; his uncle is a famous pre-war graphic artist, vice president at the Warsaw Academy of Art, Edmunda Bartlomiejczyk. Following the example of his father, who was an engineer and inventor, young Lubomir also became interested in engineering. From this time, he oscillated between art and engineering, until he combined these two fields into designing industrial forms.

After a few years in technical school, he went to a school of drawing. He began his engineering studies, which he later changed to architecture, at the Warsaw Polytechnic. At the same time, he attended classes in the sculpture department at Academy of Fine Arts. A serious illness prevented him from continuing both subjects, therefore he chose art. After the completion of the sculpture studies in 1953, he quickly became known as one of the best sculptors of his generation. He won competitions and awards on the national level. At that time he created numerous sculptures and projects reconstructing the Old Town in Warsaw. In 1955, Tomaszewski won his first award in a sculpting contest for the decoration of the Palace of Culture and Science. It was difficult to believe that this loyal patriot - a volunteer of the Polish army in 1939, at the age of sixteen , and later a participant in the Warsaw Uprising, where he was wounded several times, which affected the use of his right hand permanently and was taken away to Germany in 1944 as a prisoner of war - would support a government of the communist regime. As he stated himself, [In an interview with Ludwik Wagner, published under the title, “Ogniem malowane obrazy ojca Teatru Natury,” Relax, no. 9, 28 II 1987] he lived in complete disagreement with the Association of Artists, actually not specifically with the Association, but against the subject matter enforced by the regime on them. He did not tarnish his name by sculpting subjects related to the regime, he did not create Lenin, Stalin, or any other communist idol, and as he jokes himself his most propaganda inspired sculpture was a portrait of Einstein. This position, naturally, did not allow him to lead any kind of artistic existence. Thus, Tomaszewski returned to his previous incarnation – engineer-inventor – and began working as a designer of industrial forms at the Institute of Industrial Design in Warsaw, attaining national and international acclaim. He designed trinkets – figures expressing human characteristics – singers, dancers, and animals, as well as coffee sets, in all about thirty designs over the course of ten years. He sought, like his team colleagues, a new, rather modern style, based on the simplification of forms by eliminating unnecessary elements. His projects were shown in exhibitions in Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Norway. Today, presented in exhibitions of Polish design from 1950 and 1960, ceramics made by him are the topic of numerous studies and the attention of collectors. In the Polish reality of the 1950’s, this did not have significant meaning, however, the great interest that his works stirred in the West was dangerous. When the largest producer of porcelain in the world, the famous Rosenthal, attempted to make contact with him, the Polish authorities at that time would not allow it. This fact affected further the fate of the artist.

In 1966, he immigrated to the United States in search of freedom. He was looking for artistic freedom. He wanted to create works based on his own beliefs and not based on the orders or ideology of the government at the time. He took a position as a professor in the Department of Design at the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, which he taught from 1967 - 1993. He taught the design of industrial products (i.e. tools, devices powered by electricity, and cars), the design of furniture and interiors, the laws regulating the safety of the product (an agreement with obligatory norms and needs of the society), drawings.

After arriving in America, he could freely develop his creative ambitions in the field of sculpture. He began looking for a new direction, which later was named “Inspired by Nature” – “Creations of Nature.” Creations of nature – freshly uncovered boulders and rocks, fallen tree trunks, awoke his imagination. He began to use them completing his visions with copper, bronze and other metals, and in this way created sculptures with figurative characteristics. How accurately it was once written: “When Lubomir Tomaszewski looks at rocks, he sees sculpture. Something in the way it lays, its form, its natural aspect suggests to him the shape of an animal or a bird.” At first he made small sculptures, animal figures, which he himself describes as creations of artistic craftsmanship. Was the limitation in size a result of his habits, which developed at the Institute of Design or because of the difficult financial situation he found himself in at first in America? This is difficult to answer today. The truth is that his animals, created by joining stone with metal, gained immediate extraordinary popularity. Gradually the artist increased the size of his works. Today, he does not hesitate to create monumental sculptures.

Examples of Tomaszewski’s work, often shown at individual as well as group exhibitions, can be found in many collections and museums in the United States, Europe, Japan, as well as South America.

In 1998, Tomaszewski became one of the founders of a multi-disciplinary group, associating painters, sculptors, illustrators, photographers, graphic artists, textile designers, dancers, and musicians. This group developed its own style called Emotionalism. This style joins within itself traditional and modern art, its goal is to produce works that are full of mood and emotion and bring forth emotional and intellectual resonance in the audience. Emotionalism is the most complete reflection of Tomaszewski’s outlook on art. The group, whose activity was initially limited to the east coast of the United States, is in a period of a great expansion. One can see the works of the Emotionalists exhibited in the Central and Western United States, as well as in Europe, for example in France, Poland, and Germany.

(Read the full text - TowardsEmotionalism.pdf)