Igor Mitoraj – part I

Igor Mitoraj was born on 26^th March 1944 in Oederan, Germany. His mother was Zofia Mąkina, exiled during the German occupation to forced labour in this small town. His father who was a French Foreign Legion officer interned in a Prisoner of War camp there. 

After the war, Zofia Mąkina and her son returned to her hometown of Grojec in Poland. In 1948 she married Czesław Mitoraj. Igor (then still Jerzy) took his stepfather’s surname.

In 1959, after finishing primary school in Grojec, he initially continued his education at a technical college in nearby Oświęcim, where young people were educated to work in chemical plants. He knew, however, that this was not right for him and managed to convince his mother to let him change. He left for Bielsko-Biała, where in the same year he became a student at the five-year Secondary School of Visual Arts (now the J. Fałat State Secondary School of Visual Arts).

After passing his school-leaving exams, he began working professionally to support his mother and his five step siblings after his stepfather’s death in a coal mine. His first job was in Katowice’s City Retail. A year later, he found employment in Oświęcim, as an artist in the cultural centre at the Oświęcim Chemical Plant where he remained until 1966 when he became a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. 

In 1967, student Igor Mitoraj entered the studio of Tadeusz Kantor – painter, academic lecturer, but also theatre artist (playwright, director, actor and set designer). Though he only studied under Kantor’s direction for one year, the painter had a great influence on him, convincing him to leave Poland in order to develop his talent and fulfil his creative aspirations.

In 1968, a particularly dark and difficult year, Igor Mitoraj left Poland.