Bogdan Kazimierz Skupiński

Biography

Bogdan Kazimierz Skupiński was born on 16 July 1942 in Pabianice, Poland. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Sources associate his Kraków education with the studios of Czesław Rzepiński and Mieczysław Wejman, although the exact course of study still requires confirmation.

While in France he made prints devoted to Paris and exhibited at the Grand Palais and the Salon d’Automne. In 1970 the Musée d’Art moderne de Paris acquired his etching Gare du Nord. In the early 1970s he was among the first artists included in the Kościuszko Foundation’s US residency programme.

He arrived in the United States in 1971 and became a US citizen in 1976. He settled in New York and worked as an artist and graphic designer. Sources mention Bogdan & Associates, but its official name and nature require clarification.

His prints were described as political, anti-war and documentary, combining records of current events with personal commentary. In later years he also worked in painting and photography. In 2001–2002 he photographed Ground Zero and the ways in which victims of the World Trade Center attacks were commemorated.

Timeline

Known works and series

Series to be reconstructed

Exhibitions

Collections

Confirmed by an individual catalogue record

• National Gallery of Art, Washington — XX, Good Journey.
• Musée d’Art moderne de Paris — Gare du Nord.
• Flint Institute of Arts — Protest.
• Five College Museums / UMCA — Protest, Plate 4.
• Arca Artium, Saint John’s University — an etching depicting a student protest.

Mentioned in sources, but no individual work record has been located

• New Jersey State Museum
• Bibliothèque nationale de France
• Commission Consultative des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris
• Musée Galliera
• Richmond eMuseum — artist record available, work not identified

Awards

Publications and sources

1. National Gallery of Art: artist record and the works XX and Good Journey.
2. Paris Musées: Gare du Nord.
3. Flint Institute of Arts: Protest.
4. eHive: Protest, impression 7/75.
5. Ljubljana Graphic Biennale: 10th Biennial of Graphic Arts, 1973.
6. Municipal Office in Pabianice: “Artysta zaangażowany”.
7. A. Mandziuk-Zajączkowska, A Firecracker, a Light at the End of the Tunnel? The First Polish Programme of Residential Stays for Artists in the US, Art and Documentation 27, 2022.
8. Bolesław Wierzbiański, “Bogdan Skupinski”, New Horizon: Polish American Review, no. 5, vol. 2, 1976 — full text not located.
9. ART/WORLD, review of the Atlantic Gallery exhibition, 20 November 1980 — excerpts are known, full issue not located.
10. E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, Paris 1999, vol. 12, p. 874.
11. Artprice, askART and other commercial databases — used as supporting leads, not as independent confirmation.

Source dependency

askART, Invaluable and several auction descriptions repeat almost identical English biographical notes. They are not independent confirmations. Museum catalogues, official archives and scholarly publications have the highest priority.

Information requiring confirmation

This list focuses on gaps that currently cannot be resolved through public sources.

1. Exact dates, department and studios at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, and year of graduation.
2. Nature and dates of study at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
3. Official name of the Paris salon and the Grand Prix awarded in 1968.
4. Dates and works shown at the Grand Palais and Salon d’Automne.
5. Correct spelling and details of the works Lot and Mr. Porche.
6. Whether the move to the United States began directly through the Kościuszko Foundation grant.
7. Whether two separate awards were received in 1971: one in Hartford and one from the National Academy of Design.
8. Titles and present locations of the ten prints in the John F. Kennedy series.
9. Scope of the collaboration with Pratt Graphics Center and contents of the membership folio.
10. Nature of the 1980 Atlantic Gallery exhibition and list of works shown.
11. Official name and activities of Bogdan & Associates.
12. Meaning of the 1970 and 1976 awards and the 1990 “Presidential Medal of Merit”.
13. Works held by the New Jersey State Museum and the cited French collections.
14. Whether the two differently described works titled Protest are separate compositions.
15. Complete contents and history of the Ground Zero portfolio.