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Feliks Topolski

10 of 28 portraits matching these criteria:

- subject matching 'Murals, graffiti and street art'

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Feliks Topolski

by Ida Kar
vintage bromide print, 1954
11 5/8 in. x 9 7/8 in. (295 mm x 252 mm)
Purchased, 1999
Photographs Collection
NPG x125109

Sitterback to top

  • Feliks Topolski (1907-1989), Artist. Sitter in 15 portraits, Artist or producer of 12 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Ida Kar (1908-1974), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 1567 portraits, Sitter in 137 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Kar photographed Topolski in his studio under the arches of Hungerford Bridge where in 1975 he began his vast panorama Memoir of the Century. The portrait may be that of the pregnant wife of Topolski's friend, Brian Chen.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Freestone, Clare (appreciation) Wright, Karen (appreciation), Ida Kar Bohemian Photographer, 2011 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 10 March to 19 June 2011), p. 82 Read entry

    Topolski studied at the Warsaw Academy of Art (1927-32) and travelled widely before moving to London in 1935 and establishing a studio in Little Venice, where-he and his actress wife entertained writers, artists and politicians. His graphic style made his work well suited to use as illustrations, and during the Second World War his reputation in Britain as a gifted draughtsman saw him appointed as an official war artist. In 1951 he painted a mural for the Festival of Britain, creating it in an arch beneath Hungerford Bridge near Waterloo Station, and in 1953, commissioned by the Duke of Edinburgh, he was official artist at the Coronation of Elizabeth II. Topolski began producing his illustrated Chronicle broadsheets, a self-printed fortnightly publication combining text and illustrations, in the year before Kar photographed him. Popular success followed with his portraits for the BBC television series Face to Face (1959-62) and a series of twenty portraits in 1961-2 of literary figures. Kar photographed Topolski in his Hungerford Bridge studio ('a magical space ... a huge printing press and paintings, drawings, prints and papers piled high'). The portrait in the photograph may be of the pregnant wife of Topolski's friend Brian Chen.

Placesback to top

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Portrait setback to top

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1954back to top

Current affairs

Roger Bannister runs the four-minute mile. Bannister was the first man to achieve the 'miracle mile', a feat that was thought by some to be impossible, beating his rival, the Australian John Landy, to the record. Bannister went on to a career as a distinguished neurologist.
Food rationing ends in Britain.

Art and science

J.R.R. Tolkien publishes the first two parts of the Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Tolkien was an Oxford professor of Anglo-Saxon language and literature and drew on his scholarly interests in history, language and mythology to create the fictional land of Middle Earth where the books are set.
Williams Golding publishes, Lord of the Flies.

International

The South East Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) is established in Bangkok. This international defence organisation was established as part of the 'containment' policy of limiting the influence of communism. SEATO was, however, found to be ineffective as the member organisations failed to agree on combined action; it was disbanded in 1977.

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