Aleksander Jackowski


Aleksander Jackowski was a Polish cultural anthropologist, ethnographer, art critic. Author of various works on folk, contemporary, naïve art and l’art brut.

Biography

He grew up in Warsaw, in a family of intellectuals. In 1940 he was sent by Soviets from Lviv to Siberia, where he first came in contact with the folk culture of the Khanty. He worked as a lumberjack, bellman, tractor driver, stove fitter, turner and locksmith. His shattered ankle was fixed by a shaman, who was hiding in the woods from the Soviets. He returned to Poland with the General Berling Army in 1943. He took part in the battles of Puławy and Warsaw. He finished his military career as a major, as the Deputy Military Commander of Warsaw in May 1945. He studied sociology and attended art history lectures. Until 1948, he worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the director of the Minister's Cabinet managing the Press and Information Department. In 1948, he became the deputy editor in chief of the weekly “Odrodzenie”. From the end of 1949, he was the Deputy Director and Head of the Department of Folk and Naïve Art at the Art Institute in the Polish Academy of Sciences. At that time he started a big field project of collecting Polish Music and Verbal Folklores. In the years between 1952 and 1998 he was the editor in chief of the quarterly “Konteksty. Polska Sztuka Ludowa”. He managed the Department of Folk and Naïve Art until 1984. He is the author of more than 400 publications on folk art, contemporary art, art naïve and l’art brut. He was the longtime associate of the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Warsaw and a member of the Committee of Ethnological Sciences in Polish Academy of Sciences, Council of Culture Foundation, Council of the Centre for Contemporary Art and juror of the “Małe ojczyzny” competitions.

Published works

Books