It all begins in 1937.
Zbigniew Jóźwik is born as the son of a wheel maker in Opole Lubelskie, Poland. He grows up surrounded by nature, helping his parents around the orchard.
In 1949, he moves to Lublin and soon attends a technical school specialized in chemistry. From 1954 to 1956 he participates in an obligatory internship at Zygmunt Ditrich’s brewery in Piotrków Trybunalski. The owner is kind to young Zbigniew and lets him borrow books from his own private library, fostering an interest in history and nature.
After finishing the internship, Zbigniew Jóźwik enrolls at the faculty of chemistry at the University of Marie Curie-Skłodowska in Lublin.
Amongst all forms of life, plants are those I feel closest to. They inhabit our orchards and vegetable gardens; fields, meadows and forests; pastures, fallows and marshes.
They announce the spring, spread all around by the wind, or come reborn from the roots. They live in all climate zones. They always bring joy with their infinity of forms and colors.
They marvel us with their majesty.
Zbigniew concludes his studies at the faculty of chemistry in 1962. He then joins the department of physiology of plants at the faculty of biology and earth sciences. In 1971, he obtains a PhD at the faculty and begins working as an assistant professor, a position he holds until 2003.
Zbigniew has been interested in art since his childhood. When his father was making wheels, he would sit nearby and carve figures in wood. During his internship at the brewery, he starts drawing and sketching. In 1964, he is among the founders of Lublin Society of Friends of Fine Arts. In the 70s, he starts making and selling jewelry made of deer antlers, as well as reliefs of female faces.
During his university studies, he creates his first linocut ex-libris. He is also one of the founding members of an informal student art group. Around that time, he also buys his first photo camera, a Russian Zorki, which he still owns.
On the edge of a massive crevasse,
whipped by the wind,
shrouded in mists,
a Svalbard Poppy.
With its whiteness and half-tones
it drinks sunshine
and lasts…
Z. Jóźwik (2001)
During his work at the university, Zbigniew researches cures for tuberculosis. He investigates properties of propolis, extracts from poplar sprouts, and antibiotics produced by the Bacillus bacteria. His research into the pollution of plants and soil with heavy metals takes him to the distant island of Spitbergen in the Svalbard archipelago.
Zbigniew participates in six scientific expeditions to Svalbard, between 1987 and 2000. During the late 80s, he travels to Svalbard and stays there “the old trappers’ way”— in an old cabin, with limited communication and transport. During subsequent expeditions, he witnesses how the modernity is slowly consuming the life of the archipelago.
In 1962, he marries his beloved Barbara. Together, they have two kids, Magda and Maciej.
Clouds are born on Spitsbergen.
They are born just like terns and arctic foxes.
Dispatched by the wind, they harbour
over our houses, fields and gardens.
They bring joy, but also fear...
Z. Jóźwik (2007)
Throughout his career, Zbigniew creates over 400 linocuts and over 800 ex-libris pieces. Among his favorite themes and topics are Svalbard, nature, human settlements, Virgin Mary, crosses, poets and writers. As Waldemar Michalski writes about him:
He operates with the stylus delicately, sparingly. The line he draws becomes a branch, contour of a leaf, tree, landscape. In the background, there is always a human being. Everything in his art points upwards, towards the Sun. One of his favorite techniques for details are plants in different configurations. The cross is a common pattern. In one of his poems, Zbigniew Jóźwik makes a reference to Karol Wojtyła’s thought and points out that “the becoming of Man happens through the Cross”.
There is something unique and sacred when we face the nature of the Arctic. There is something here that commands us to become better and to see all the creatures as brothers and sisters, in the footsteps of St Francis of Assisi, the patron of ecologists.
Zbigniew Jóźwik creates linocut, woodcut, and drypoint art. Throughout his artistic career, he creates illustrations for books and scientific publications. He is one of the organizers of ex-libris exhibitions in Poland and is an author of over 70 articles about linocut.
In recognition of his artistic skills, Zbigniew Jóźwik receives many awards at international and national art exhibitions, including Slovenia, Italy, and Lithuania. In 1994, he is awarded Order of Polonia Restituta Fifth Class, and in 2002 he receives the Order of Polonia Restituta Fourth Class.
