Józef Czapski
Józef Czapski | |
|---|---|
Czapski in uniform, January 1943 | |
| Born | 3 April 1896 Prague, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 12 January 1993 (aged 96) Maisons-Laffitte, France |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Occupation(s) | artist, writer, critic |
| Known for | co-creating Kultura monthly, survivorship and eyewitness testament of the Katyn massacre |
| Notable work | The Inhuman Land, Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp |
Józef Czapski (3 April 1896 – 12 January 1993) was a Polish artist, author, and critic, as well as an officer of the Polish Army. As a painter, he is notable for his membership in the Kapist movement, which was heavily influenced by Cézanne. Following the Polish Defensive War, he was made a prisoner of war by the Soviets and was among the very few officers to survive the Katyn massacre of 1940. Following the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement, he was an official envoy of the Polish government searching for the missing Polish officers in Russia. After World War II, he remained in exile in the Paris suburb of Maisons-Laffitte, where he was among the founders of Kultura monthly, one of the most influential Polish cultural journals of the 20th century.