Józef Czapski - Encounters with Polish Literature - S3E12

Józef Czapski with Irena Grudzińska Gross
Józef Czapski (1896-1993) was born to aristocracy but died in materially modest circumstances, in a tiny room he had occupied for decades in Maisons-Laffitte, home of the Polish émigré press in Paris known as “Kultura.” He thought of himself mainly as a painter-an activity he pursued throughout his life, also producing hundreds of volumes of diaries and sketches. He is remembered, however, mainly as a soldier who was captured by the Germans in World War II and transferred to the Soviets, and miraculously survived the Soviet camps while around 22,000 of his fellow Polish officers were murdered by the Soviets on Stalin’s orders in the Katyń forest in 1940. While serving under General Władysław Anders in 1941-42, he returned to the Soviet Union to investigate the fate of the missing officers, without success. His Inhuman Land is a compelling account of his search, and Memories of Starobielsk might be read as an attempt to restore the humanity of the prisoners who were lost, based on what he recalled of some of their prewar civilian lives.
In this episode, we reflect on some of his humanizing portraits in words, his remarkable lectures on Marcel Proust delivered in a Soviet prison camp, and think about aspects of Czapski’s biography that are revealed in his paintings.
Encounters with Polish Literature is a video series for anyone interested in literature and the culture of books and reading. Each month, host David A. Goldfarb will present a new topic in conversation with an expert on that author or book or movement in Polish literature. More about the Encounters with Polish Literature series and the timeline.
Learn more about this episode, and see the biography of the guests on the Polish Cultural Institute New York's website: instytutpolski.pl/newyork/202...
Access the Playlist of the entire series:
bit.ly/Encounters-ALL
Bartek Remisko, Executive Producer
David A. Goldfarb, Host & Producer
Natalia Iyudin, Producer

[@user-uw4dl1zj2e]

Great conversation! Thank you Irena, thank you David.

[@stanskrzeszewski9369]

I am a great fan of Czapski. Thanks for doing this. Czapski deserves more attention.

[@user-xy1uw6xi1o]

The main financial backer of Czapski was Yolanda Wankowicz, the Marquise de Boisgelin. Yolanda was related to Czapski, Giedroyc,vand Melchior Wankowicz, her Wankowicz family also being from Minsk.

[@dgoldfar]

The Józef Czapski painting “Self-portrait with a lightbulb” presented in the video comes from the collection of Michał Popiel de Boisgelin; the painting “Still life with bowls and newspapers” as well as Czapski's drawings come from private collections.