To Whom It May Concern: August 11, 2011

This will confirm that shooting has begun for a documentary on the life and work of Witold-K. The feature-length film will examine the life and painting of an artist who has taken a fascinating journey through culture and history. It will explore Witold's unusual and fascinating upbringing as a child coming of age during the Nazi occupation, and will continue to chart Witold's life as an adult: from Warsaw to Paris and then to the United States. It will mix Witold's compelling story (told with interviews and footage from the places he has lived) with images of his work. The film will heighten understanding of life in Poland, of Witold's fascinating and eclectic range of experiences, and of his artistic process.

Witold has survived not only the Nazi occupation but also the years of Soviet repression. He has been associated with some of the most important artists, writers, muscians, and filmmakers of the 20th century: Pablo Picasso, Jacques Prevert, Maurice Pons, Lalo Schifrin, Krzysztof Kieslowski, and Roman Polanski, among them.

An internationally acclaimed artist with a Denver, Colorado studio and gallery open to the public since 1981, Witold has the rare distinction of being the first American and Polish artist whose vast body of work was featured at a prestigious Sotheby's auction in Amsterdam in July 2007.

In October, Witold-K will be at the opening of a major exhibition of his work at the Oswiecim Cultural Center, in Oswiecim, Poland, where 50 years ago, in 1961, he completed his frescoes commemorating the victims of Nazi barbarity and murder at Auschwitz.

The filmmakers are James Phelan, Robert Denerstein and Ron Henderson

Source:
witoldk interfold.com [witoldk@interfold.com]

He studied at the Faculty of Graphics of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He was a student of Eugeniusz Arct, Wojciech Fangor and Henryk Tomaszewski. He made a ceiling lamp in the theater hall of the House of Culture in Oswiecim (1958-1961), outdoor sculptures in Marseille (1967-1968), and an artistic composition in front of the Museum of Modern Art in Houston (1975).

He participated in numerous collective exhibitions, including: in the Exhibition of Young Fine Arts in Warsaw (1956), the Painting Exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw (1961), the exhibition of works by Polish artists working abroad entitled "WE ARE" at Zacheta (1991). In 1964 he went to Paris. My stay in France resulted in many friendships, including: with Jacques Prevert and Mauice Pons, and meeting Pablo Picasso, who painted a portrait of the artist. In 1968, Kaczanowski left for the USA. Kaczanowski was the first Pole and American to have a retrospective at the oldest auction house in Amsterdam - Sotheby's (2007, 163 works were exhibited).

The list of individual shows is also complemented by retrospectives at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles (1973), the Polish Emigration Museum in the Royal Lazienki Park in Warsaw (2004), and the National Museum in Krakow (2013). Witold-K is the winner of many awards and distinctions, including the award of the Congress of Cultural Freedom (1965), the badge of Merit for Polish Culture awarded by the Minister of Culture and Art of the Republic of Poland (1997), and the Silver Medal for Merit