Piotr Tadeusz Potworowski was born on 14 June 1898, in Warsaw, then part of the Russian Empire. He was considered a "difficult" child, always restless and looking for adventure. In 1913, his mother was killed in an accident and a year later, at the start of the First World War in August 1914, he and his two brothers were sent to relatives in Moscow for safety. His sketches from that period show interest and talent, which was temporarily put aside when he volunteered for the Polish Cavalry Brigade as part of the Russian Army. From there he engaged in the confused warfare that involved the new Poland consolidating its independence and borders. During this time his brother Jan was killed during a campaign on the Ukrainian frontier.
In 1920, after having been demobilised by the army, his family pressed him to go to university and so he found himself studying architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology. Whilst his study of architecture clearly influenced Potworowski’s meticulous approach to composition and form, he soon discovered that art was his real passion. In the following year he therefore resolved to transfer to the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, where he successfully enrolled as a painter. One version of events involved Potworowski arriving with pistol in hand, demanding a place at the university. In any case, it was there that he found his calling.
In 1924, having studied under the French-influenced Jozef Pankiewicz in Krakow, he travelled to Paris as a loose member of the Komitet Paryski (the Kapists/Colourists). There, Potworowski immersed himself in the avant-garde culture of the period for several years, leaving France only a few times to quench his thirst for travel. Once in 1927 for a short stint as a deckhand on board a sailing ship that was engaged in the coal trade in North Africa, and once for a six week tour of Britain in 1928, where he visited London, Oxford and Wales. Whilst in London he took part in an exhibition of maritime paintings at the Clarence Gallery.
In France he briefly joined the studio of Fernand Léger and was a leader in organising the Bal Polonaise, which was attended by the likes of Picasso, Braque and other artists. It was a productive and hugely educational time for him that would only have been possible in the excitement and innovation of the Parisian milieu of the 1920s.
In 1929 he married Magdalena Mankowska, an aristocratic woman whose considerable intellect matched her candour. Potworowski purportedly wooed on the banks of the Seine dressed as a sailor, and soon the young couple returned to Poland, where in May of 1930 their son Jan was born. They lived near Poznan, in a stately home which was owned by Magdalena's family and in which they hosted fellow artists and officers from his regiment for months on end.
The family moved to Grebanin, a village near the town of Kepno, in 1935. There, Potworowski opened a regional museum and commenced work on a large fresco in the town hall. In 1936, Anusia, his daughter was born. He exhibited frequently in Poland and in 1937 was awarded a silver medal at the International Exhibition of Art and Technology in Paris.
He fought in the 1939 campaign and when that collapsed attempted to reach allied forces in Narvik. When the fall of France made this impossible he settled in Sweden where he continued to paint and sculpt, and organised an exhibition of Polish-Norwegian Art. In 1941 his family joined him but in September 1943 he was ordered to join the Polish Army in Britain. On arriving in Scotland in a Mosquito, he was told that he was too old for front-line duty and was stationed in London. There he engaged with enthusiasm in the Polish cultural life, was appointed President of the Association of Polish Artists and joined the exclusive London Group. A number of exhibitions in London led to a position in the Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, where he significantly influenced the creative thinking of a new wave of British painters such as Peter Lanyon, William Scott, and Patrick Heron. Every two years he exhibited in the Gimpel Fils Gallery. In 1958 he was invited to work in Poland. There followed four very intensive years where he not only produced his most powerful paintings but also sculptures and scenography projects. He had his first exhibition at the National Museum in Poznań, 1958, then in National Museums of Kraków, Gdańsk, Warsaw, Wrocław and Szczecin. The very good reception of his work contributed to his decision to stay in the country. He exhibited in the Venice Biennale in 1960 receiving a silver medal and also in the Galerie Lacloche, Paris.He died on 24 April 1962, in Warsaw and was buried in the Powązki Cemetery in the Avenue of Merit.
