Stanislaw Zagajewski (1927 - 2008 Wloclawek), Flower

Biography
Outstanding self-taught artist. The date and place of his birth are unknown. He was found in the winter of 1929 on the steps of St. Barbara's Church in Warsaw. The found child was assigned a first and last name and inscribed with a fictitious date and place of birth (Warsaw, September 27, 1927). He spent his childhood in monastic institutions in Ciechocinek and Grab near Toruń. He earned his living doing many different jobs: cook, gardener, bookbinder, tailor, he was also a night watchman and an escort. He also made stuccowork in Warsaw's Old Town, and worked on the construction of the MDM in Warsaw and the W-Z Route. Clay sculpting was his great passion and passion from an early age. His talents were discovered quite early, but he could not be admitted to a secondary art school because he had not completed elementary school, and to a construction school because his health was too frail. He was taught the art of firing clay molds at "Cepelia" for which he made clay birds. Thanks to the personal efforts of Prof. A. Jackowski of the Art Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, he was given a small house in Wloclawek, where he lived and worked until the end of his life. The most complete collection (permanent exhibition - more than 120 sculptures; including several altars) is owned by the Museum of Kuyavia and Dobrzyń Land in Włocławek. Zagajewski's sculptures are also in the collection of the Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, the Silesian Museum in Katowice, the Ethnographic Museum in Torun and the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, among others. His works are shown at all important exhibitions of artists from the circle of the so-called Art Brut.