Stanisław Szukalski

Stanisław Szukalski
Stanisław Szukalski in Kraków 1936.
Born	(1893-12-13)December 13, 1893 Warta, Poland
Died	May 19, 1987(1987-05-19) (aged 93) Burbank, California, U.S.
Nationality	Polish

Stanisław Szukalski (13 December 1893 – 19 May 1987) was a Polish-born painter and sculptor who became a part of the Chicago Renaissance. He also developed the pseudoscientific-historical theory of Zermatism, positing that all human culture was derived from post-deluge Easter Island and that mankind was locked in an eternal struggle with the Sons of Yeti ("Yetinsyny"), the offspring of Yeti and humans. He illustrated this theory in his works.

Szukalski immigrated to the United States in his teens, where he joined the arts scene in Chicago and became a vital part of the "Chicago Renaissance". Ben Hecht, who knew Szukalski in the 1920s, described him in his 1954 autobiography A Child of the Century as starving, muscular, aristocratic and disdainful of lesser beings than himself—traits Szukalski retained for the rest of his life. In 1929 he was a founder of an artistic movement called Tribe of the Horned Heart (Szczep Rogate Serce) - centered on Polish artists who sought inspiration in the pagan or pre-Christian history of Poland.

The first design proposed for a monument of Adam Mickiewicz for Vilnius was promoted by Zbigniew Pronaszko of Vilnius University (then, Stefan Batory University in the Second Polish Republic). However, in May 1925, a contest was declared for the proposed monument. The period for submitting designs was extended a number of times thanks to the deep interest in the project by the artistic scene, with 67 designs ultimately submitted. The jury consisted of Vilnius's Municipal authorities and representatives of the arts scene, with General Lucjan Żeligowski at the helm.

First prize went to Avant-Garde artist Stanisław Szukalski, Second Prize to Rafał Jachimowicz, with the third prize awarded to Mieczysław Lubelski. According to Szukalski's design Mickiewicz was naked, lying upon a sacrificial altar. The artist had the sculpture situated on a large pedestal in the shape of an Aztec pyramid. A White Eagle- Poland's national symbol was perched at the figure's side where it symbolically drank blood from the poet's wound.