Witold Gawęcki
Polish, 1911-1946
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Wit (Witold) Gawęcki was a Polish cartoonist, painter, stage designer, illustrator, and graphic artist.
He came from a merchant family and was the son of Sylwester and Stanisława, née Laurentowska. In 1930, he graduated from secondary school in Ostrów Wielkopolski, where he developed his first artistic skills. He initially studied law, then painting and graphic design at the State School of Decorative Arts in Poznań. He graduated in 1934 and immediately began his painting career (watercolor landscapes exhibited at Salon 35, portraits, caricatures, illustrations, bookplates, book covers, as well as decorative models for the Pod kaktusem cabaret). In 1939, he was displaced from Poznań and settled in Warsaw. He worked there at the Mon Café entertainment venue as an artist. He published illegal bookplates, working in the underground Circle of Bookplate and Graphic Art Lovers (including an album of fifteen bookplates published in 1944, backdated to 1939).
He also created posters, illustrations for texts, and caricatures, including an album of 45 caricatures entitled Syrena ze swastyką (Siren with a Swastika). In 1944, due to advancing tuberculosis, he left for Lipinki in the Podkarpacie region, where he devoted himself to landscape and genre painting. He returned to Warsaw just before the uprising, and during the uprising he created a series of eighty drawings depicting street fighting (not preserved). In April 1945, he returned to Poznań, where he became involved with the literary cabaret Kukułka (he was its co-founder, made decorations for it, and sometimes acted as a compère). He also published illustrations, jokes, and caricatures in the then newly established Głos Wielkopolski. He created panels for the first post-war exhibition at the Wielkopolska Museum, illustrating the cultural losses of Poznań during the war. He also created theater decorations. In 1946, a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Kukułka cabaret. On New Year's Eve 1945, he prepared a New Year's nativity scene for Głos Wielkopolski. He died a childless bachelor.