Xawery Dunikowski

sculptor born in Krakow. He studied at the School of Fine Arts. In the years 1904-1910 he was a professor of sculpture at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts, after which he returned to Krakow. In 1914 he went to London, and then to France. He served in the Bayonne Foreign Legion for half a year. From 1922 he headed the Sculpture Department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, in 1930 he became a professor there. His outstanding student, J. Bandura, wrote that Xawery became at that time such an inseparable element of Krakow’s landscapes as the Florian’s Gate. In 1940, he was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the years 1946-1955 he again headed the Sculpture Department at the Academy of Fine Arts, then he moved to Warsaw, and in 1959 he took over the Sculpture Department at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Wrocław.
His most famous works include: “Madonna”, “Mother Portrait”, “Motherhood” and Adam Mickiewicz‘s Head. It was he who created the figurative statue of the president of Krakow – Józef Dietl on the All Saints Square.
Dunikowski is an award-winning artist, his works are in numerous museums and private collections, one of the streets of Nowa Huta is named after him.