![[Pitynski's Portrait]](Pitynski_1565.JPG)
Andrzej Pitynski, sculptor
| ...... |
![[Katyn Baltimore]](Katyn_0311.JPG) "Flame of Freedom" -- Katyn Monument in Baltimore, MD |
Andrzej Pitynski
Sculptor
Born Mar. 15, 1947, Ulanow, Poland; came to U.S., 1974; son of Aleksander and Stefania (Krupa); married Krystyna (Gacek); child: Aleksander.
Education: Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.), Cracow Academy of Fine Arts (Poland), 1974; Art Students League, New York City, 1976-77.
Career: assistant, New York Sculpture House, 1975-79; supervisor, Johnson Atelier, Technical Institute of Sculpture, Mercerville (NJ), 1979 -; instructor (sculpture), Rider College, Trenton (NJ), 1992 -.
Author: monuments: Ignacy Paderewski, 1974, Partisans, 1983, Father Popieluszko, and Maria Sklodowska-Curie, 1987, Avenger, 1988, Pope John Paul II, 1989, 1991, Katyn 1940, 1991, Anders, 1995.
Member of: fellow, National Sculpture Society; American Medalic Sculpture Association; Allied Artists of America; Contemporary Artists Guild, New York City; Audubon Artists; Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (P.I.A.S.A.).
Honors: Silver Medal, Allied Artists of America, 1985; Haller's Swords, Polish Army Veterans Association - Stowarzyszenie Weteranow Armii Polskiej (S.W.A.P.), 1988; Chivalry Cross - Polonia Restituta, Polish Government in Exile, London (United Kingdom), 1989; Gold Order of Merit, Polish Government, 1990.
Affiliation: Republican. Roman Catholic.
Languages: Polish, English, Russian.
Hobbies: horseback riding, judo, hunting.
Home: 90 Dupont Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222.
From: "Who's Who in Polish America" 1st Edition 1996-1997, Boleslaw
Wierzbianski editor; Bicentennial Publishing Corporation,
New York, NY, 1996.
Andrzej Pitynski, artist and sculptor was born in 1947 in Ulanow [Poland]. In 1974 he finished the Fine Arts Academy in Krakow in the studio of Prof. Bandura, and a six month internship at the monument and statuary foundry for non-ferrous metals in the Gliwice Enterprise for Technical Apparatus. On October 3 of the same year he came to New York. already in Poland he had some important accomplishments to his credit. He created the statue of Ignacy Paderewski in Krakow, and a bas-relief of Queen Jadwiga for the Jagiellonian University. He received an award for "Kircholm" at the exhibition devoted to the 30th anniversary of the Polish Peoples Army at the Zacheta gallery. These works he executed while still a student under the direction of, among others, Professor Estreicher.
At the beginning of his stay in America he took up odd jobs and used the money to study at the New York Arts Students League. He was fortunate because soon he received work at the Sculpture House in Manhattan where he learned in depth and developed the technique of building monumental sculptures and the ancient technique, 4,500 years old, of casting bronze. Soon he became the assistant to Alexander Ettel, the senior master of American sculpture.
Pitynski's career developed in 1979 when on Ettel's recommendation he joined the Johnson Atelier - Technical Institute of Sculpture in Mercerville, NJ where he took over as chief of the monumental sculpture department, and where he works to this day.
It was at the Johnson Atelier that Pitynski's sculpture "The Partisans" was enlarged to monumental size (9 by 6 meters) because of its sculptural qualities, at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars as stated Seward Johnson Jr. in "Smithsonian" magazine. This aluminum sculpture was unveiled in a historic place in Boston, the Boston Common, on November 10, 1983, a day that the city's mayor proclaimed "Partisans' Day."
Pitynski is the sculptor of statues --"Marie Sklodowska-Curie" in Bayonne, "Sarmata" [Polish Noble] at the Morris Museum, "Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko" in Trenton, "Pope John Paul II" in Manhattan, "Msciciel" [Avenger] a huge sculpture of bronze that was unveiled at the American Czestochowa [in Doylestown, PA] on August 14, 1988, There are also several of his bas reliefs including the urn holding the heart of Paderewski, and another dedicated to the Home Army. In addition two of his crowned eagles decorate the Polish Consulate General in New York, and the Embassy in Washington, DC.
His most impressive sculpture is "Katyn 1940", unveiled on May 19, 1991 in Exchange Place in Jersey City, NJ. The statue is made of cast bronze weighing 6 tons on a granite base weighing 120 tons, it stands 12 meters high.
During an interview he replied to a question on the role of monuments in life, "A monument is an expressive symbol. A good one, looked at for even a few minutes will remain in memory for years or even for one's entire lifetime. Monuments are the milestones in a nation's history -- they will not allow other systems and governments to destroy the core values of a national culture."
Pitynski also executed a large monument which was unveiled on August 15, 1995 on the 78th anniversary of the Battle for Warsaw, on Grunwald Square near Polish Army Avenue in Warsaw. This sculpture shows three soldiers in the uniforms of Haller's Polish Army of 1918 -- a cavalry man mounted on a horse and two infantry men coming out of ocean waves. On the lower part of the sculpture is a sign [a quote from the Polish National Anthem] "To save our homeland we would cross the sea." On the tops of the waves are names of places where Polish volunteers from America fought, and their battle trail through Champagne, Wogezy, Kiev, Wolyn, Lwow. We know from history that General Haller, commander of the Blue Army, organized the recruitment of volunteers from among the Polonia in both Americas and attracted 40,000 men of whom over 22 thousand were accepted for service. Eventually over 90 thousand soldiers came to Poland from America and from western Europe. From a historical perspective we can see that without them Polish independence and stabilization of borders in 1918 would not have been possible.
In addition to monuments, sculptural compositions, and bas-reliefs Pitynski is the creator of medals devoted to historical persons and events; among them: Jozef Pilsudski, Gen. Kazimierz Pulaski, Jan III Sobieski, John Paul II, the Warsaw Uprising.
He has received numerous awards in the prestigious National Arts Club in New York. For his work "Partisans II" he received a silver medal in 1986 from the magazine "Polish American World." In 1988, for his contributions to American culture, he received the highest award from the Association of Polish Army Veterans in the USA -- the Haller Swords Medal. In 1989 he received the Polonia Restituta Cross from [the Polish Government in] London and in 1990 the Gold Order of Merit of the Polish Republic in Warsaw.
In September of this year [2001] there will be unveiled in Baltimore a 20 meter monument by Pitynski named "Flame of Freedom." [This Katyn monument was actually unveiled in November of 2001].
From: Resume 2001