Stanislaw Borowski

After arriving in Rheinbach from Poland in 1982, Stanislaw Borowski embarked on a life journey that still fills him with gratitude: “I’ve been so incredibly lucky in my life, met the right people at the right time and made the right decisions. I was able to find fulfilment as an artist, I have a great family – things couldn’t be better.”

He ranks today among the world’s pre-eminent glass artists and is considered the undisputed master of glass engraving. In his pieces, he combines the diverse techniques of glass working with engraving in a unique fashion to create his fascinatingly detailed, often surrealistic imagery. Stanislaw Borowski was born in 1944 in Moûtiers in France, where his father was employed as a migrant worker in the coal industry. Four years later, all the propaganda for a fresh start for the Polish People’s Republic lured the family back to their homeland. The young Stanislaw sensed early on that he had an artistic streak, but his father first made him learn a more solid trade. He became a mechanic. In 1964, chance took him to the Krosno glassworks – and he was hooked. He immediately got a job there in order to learn about the different areas of glass production and design. But working at the industrial glassworks did not satisfy his artistic urge.

Secretly he set up a workshop in his aunt’s garage, where he experimented intensively but on a shoestring with the material of glass while reading the literature on the subject. He then made his first contacts with German artists and galleries in 1977 at the exhibition accompanying the 1st Coburg Prize for Contemporary Glass. When Stanislaw Borowski then moved to Rheinbach in 1982, his career skyrocketed. He was finally able to do his own artistic work, display it in exhibitions, and exchange ideas and knowledge with other artists such as Pavel Molnár, Udo Edelmann, Gerd Kruft, Erwin Eisch and Jack Ink.

He achieved a sensational breakthrough in the USA, where galleries and collectors scrambled to purchase one of his pieces. Demand was so high that new production possibilities had to be found. Borowski found a temporary solution in Hennef near Bonn, and then set up his own private glassworks in Bunzlau (Bolesławiec) in Poland in 1992, where he has been producing his work ever since. In the meantime, his sons Pawel and Stani Jan have also taken up the profession of glass artist, while Wiktor now manages the family business – a happy situation for the established glass artist, who can now see his talent and his love for glass being kept alive in the next generation.

Our new exhibition provides a glimpse of Stanislaw Borowski’s life’s work. At the centre are his early pieces from Rheinbach, works from the phase during which he took the American market by storm, and finally artworks from the period leading into the new millennium. His work is presented not only in the context of selected pieces by his earlier fellow-artists but also in combination with works by his two sons Pawel and Stani Jan. The baton has been passed on, and Stanislaw Borowski’s lifetime achievements are pointing the way to the future!

Photos:

Stanislaw Borowski, The Grande Valentino II, 2005, Leihgabe THE EKARD COLLECTION – Photo Grzegosz Matoryn

Stanislaw Borowski, White Ship, 2003, Leihgabe Borowski – Photo Sasa Fuis

Stanislaw Borowski, Deep from my heart, 2005, Leihgabe Borowski – Photo Sasa Fuis

Stanislaw Borowski, Tales from the blue Lagoon, 2006, Leihgabe Borowski – Photo Sasa Fuis