Wladyslaw Dutkiewicz

Peter Medlen, Wladyslaw Dutkiewicz 1962, gelatin-silver photograph

Wladyslaw Dutkiewicz (b. 1918 Stara Sol, Poland) was a painter, sculptor, writer, actor, stage designer and theatre director. After arriving in Adelaide in 1950 he was first noticed for his set designs for plays. He made a strong impact on art in South Australia with his forceful expressionist paintings and experimental and innovative modes of abstraction. In the 1950s and 1960s he was widely regarded as a leader of the lively modern art movement in Adelaide.

By the decade’s end he was included in publications on Australian art and international exhibitions in London and a little later Beverly Hills. After suffering head injuries in a car accident in 1956 he was forced to give up painting for a few years to recover his memory and colour vision. He formed the Art Studio Players, working with The Method from 1959-62 and producing several plays for the company, and directed two plays for the Adelaide University Theatre Guild, in 1959 and 1967. He later appeared as an actor in several Crawford Production television dramas in Melbourne.

He held over 40 solo exhibitions in Adelaide and other capital cities, and participated in over 100 exhibitions overall.  He continued painting until his death in Adelaide in 1999. Three survey exhibitions have been mounted since his death. A monograph was published in 2006 and a full biography in 2013, available through blurb.com; it was released in paperback in 2019.

 

 

Wlad’s part in the origin of the Polish Art Foundation in Australia:

https://www.polishartfoundation.org.au/paf-history

Wlad’s part in the career of Adelaide actor Barbara West and the Adelaide festivals:

https://adelaideaz.com/articles/adelaide-actor-barbara-west-works-with-w-adys-aw-dutkiewicz-s-art-studio-players-and–method–theatre-in-1950s

Wlad’s influence on artist Syd Ball:

https://www.sullivanstrumpf.com/assets/Uploads/Paul-McGillick-22Music-of-the-Spheres22-Habitusliving-Issue-21-October-December-2013.pdf