Famous Polish

men and women

www.poland.gov.pl

Magdalena Abakanowicz

Magdalena Abakanowicz (born 1930) - sculptor,

professor at the College of Fine Arts in Poznan,

lecturer at the University of California. She has some 100 one-woman

exhibitions to her name.

She has received many awards, including the

Grand Culture Foundation Prize in 2001.

Adam Małysz

Adam Malysz (born 1977) - ski jumper.

In the 2000/2001 season

he had a wide array of astounding victories

In Predazzo in 2003 he won both gold medals.

He won the World Cup

in 2000/2001, 2001/2002,

and 2002/2003.

He brought back two medals

from the Olympics in Salt Lake City:

a silver and a bronze.

Agnieszka Holland

Agnieszka Holland (born 1948)

- film, theatre and television

director.

She is a member of the European Film Academy

and was nominated for an Oscar

for ‘Bitter Harvest’

Her best known films are:

‘To Kill a Priest’ (1988), ‘Europa, Europa’ (1990,

Golden Globe), ‘The Secret Garden’

(1994),

Andrzej Wajda

Andrzej Wajda (born 1926)

- director, member of the ‘Immortal Circle’ of the

French Academy of Fine Arts.

His best films are:‘Canal’

1957, won the Silver Palm award at Cannes,‘Promised land’

1974, nominated for an Oscar, won awards

in Gdansk and Moscow

‘Man of Iron’ (1981, Golden Palm

at Cannes)

In 1996 he was awarded

the Silver Bear award in Berlin. In 2001

the German president awarded him

the Great Cross of Merit.

Czeslaw Milosz

Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004)

- poet, prose writer,

essayist, translator.

Nobel Prize-winner in 1980

and Polish Nike Prize-winner in 1998

for ‘The little wayside dog’.

His most important collections of poetry are:

‘Rescue’ 1945, ‘Daylight’ 1953,

‘A Treatise on Poetry,’ 1957, ‘The City Without a Name’

1969 ‘That’ 2000

Fryderyk Chopin

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

- pianist and

the greatest Polish composer.

Spent most of his life abroad,

amongst other places, in France.

He wrote his works especially for the piano,

including concerts, sonatas, etudes,

preludes, polonaises, mazurkas and waltzes.

His works had an enormous influence

on the music of the end of the 19th

and early 20th centuries.

Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus

(1473-1543) - renowned astronomer.

He studied in Torun, Cracow and then in Bologna, Padova

and Ferrara, where he earned

a doctorate in canonical law.

As the first in modern times

he developed a heliocentric theory of the Solar System.

He published his discoveries

in the year of his death in the work

‘On the Revolutions of the

Celestial Spheres’

Krzysztof Kieslowski

Krzysztof Kieslowski (1941-1996)

- film director and

script writer.

‘Ten Commandments I - X’

made in 1988-89 marked

his permanent position in the film world

(FIPRESCI award).

He had similar successes with

‘The double life of Veronique’

1991,

‘Three Colours: Blue’ won the Golden Lion in

Venice, ‘Three Colours: White’

Silver Bear in Berlin and

‘Three Colours: Red’ nominated for an Oscar)

He won dozens of awards and distinctions

for his work in film, for example the ‘Felix’ from the

European Film Academy

Marek Kaminski

Marek Kaminski (born 1964)

- traveller, in 1995 he was the first person

to reach both poles: the North Pole

on 23rd May 1995 and the South Pole

on 27 Dec. 1995.

Roman Polański

Roman Polanski (born 1935)

- actor, director,

script writer, graduate of the Łódź Film School.

‘Knife in Water’1962, Oscar nomination,

FIPRESCI at Venice, Grand Prix at Prades

‘Rosemary’s Baby’ 1968Oscar nomination, ‘Chinatown’ 1974,

Golden Globe in Hollywood,

‘Tess’ 1980,

Caesar Award for film

and director,

‘Pirates’ 1986, ‘Frantic’ 1988, ‘The Pianist’

2001, Golden Palm at Cannes.

He has been a member

of the French Academy

of Fine Arts since 1999.

Robert Korzeniowski

Robert Korzeniowski (born 1968)

- athlete. Twice Olympic

50 km walking champion, in 1996 and 2000,

and 20 km champion in 2000.

Twice world 50 km walking champion (1997,

2001). A Council of Europe

ambassador for tolerance and fair play.

Wislawa Szymborska

Wislawa Szymborska (born 1923)

- poet and

literary critic.

Awarded Nobel Prize

for literature

in 1996

In 2001 she became an honorary member

of the American Academy of Fine Arts

and Literature, the most important American distinction

awarded to renowned artists.

Her most important collections of verses are:‘View of a Grain of Sand’

1996, ‘Beginning and End’ 1993

and ‘A Hundred Verses, a Hundred Joys’ 1997

Aleksander Wolszczan

Aleksander Wolszczan

(born 1946) - astronomer.

He is a professor at the

University of Pennsylvania

in Philadelphia and

Toruń University.

In 1990 he was the first

to prove the existence

of a planetary system in the Universe

outside of our solar system.

John Paul II,

Karol Wojtyła

(1920-2005)

He was the first in the history of the Church

to hold prayer meetings with all religions.

He opened up dialogue

with the Jews.

He was on more than 200 foreign trips,

several times to Poland.