Henryk Kuna

Henryk Kuna (c.1885 – 17 December 1945) was a sculptor, active in the early twentieth century. His long career produced many famous works of arts including several renowned public monuments in his native country of Poland.

Life

Henryk Kuna was born to a Jewish family in Warsaw in 1885 or possibly earlier (various sources give his year of birth as far back as 1879). Kuna studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków where he met fellow artists who would become lifelong friends. Many of them became deeply involved in Kuna's informal school of art known as Rytm (Rhythm). The group focused on the development of a Polish national style melding modernity with classicism.

Kuna was a well-established artist in his time. He was appointed, along with the artists Teodor Axentowicz, Julian Fałat and others, to represent Poland at the XII Venice Biennale in 1920. Kuna's fame flourished further with a well-received solo exhibition in London two years later.

Kuna died in the northern city of Toruń in 1945. He was interred in Warsaw's historic Powązki Cemetery.