Tadeusz BORUTA, "Shrouded."

75x45, oil on canvas, 1997

(Born 1957 in Cracow)

Studied at the Cracow University of Technology from 1977 to 1979, the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow from 1979 to 1983 (he received his diploma in the studios of Stanisław Rodziński and Zbylut Grzywacz, and the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Cracow from 1981 to 1984. During his student days, he was a participant in the Beczka academic ministry.

In his painting he often took up religious themes, including passion. In the 1980s, he participated in the independent culture movement. In 1984 he received the Award of the Independent Culture Committee "Solidarity" at the exhibition "Around graphics" in 1985 the First Prize at the 1st National Biennial of Young People "The Way and the Truth", in 1988 the Artistic Youth Award for 1987.

He was counted among the trend of the so-called "Krakow figuration", and exhibited together with Grzegorz Bednarski, among others. In 1996 he made a polychrome in the parish church in Lubien, in 2001 - in the parish church in Harbutowice.

He was the author of more than a dozen problem exhibitions, including "Toward the Person" (1985), "All Our Daily Affairs" (1987) in the cloisters of the Dominican Friars' Monastery in Cracow, "Paschal Mystery" (1986) in the crypt in the crypt of the church of the Fr. Piarists in Cracow, "Aus der Metapher heraus" (1990) in Darmstadt, "Well after the artist in a time of waste" (1990) in Warsaw's Zachęta Gallery and the National Museum in Cracow (1991), "I barbari nel giardino. Mostra di pittura di artisti polacchi" in Bologna (1998), "Generation '80: Independent Youth Creativity 1980-1989" in Krakow (2010).

From 1998 to 2004 he worked at the European Academy of Arts in Warsaw. Since 2004, he has been affiliated with the University of Rzeszow, where he leads the Monumental Painting Studio, and since 2010 he has headed the Painting Department at the Faculty of Art. In 2003, he defended his doctoral thesis at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, and was habilitated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice. In 2013 he was awarded the title of professor of plastic sciences.

He has published in Tygodnik Powszechny and Znak, among others. He published the books School of Looking (2003), On Painting the Soul and Body (2006), Figur-ration (2009).

In 2015 he became a national active member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 1996 he received the Włodzimierz Pietrzak Award. In 2001 he was awarded the Golden Cross of Merit, and in 2016 he was honored with the Thank You for Freedom medal. In 2019 he was awarded the Per Artem ad Deum (Through Art to God) medal, which he received at the Sacroexpo exhibition in Kielce.

His wife is painter Aldona Mickiewicz, with whom he did a series of paintings in the former chapel of the Benedictine Sisters' monastery in Monte San Savino between 1992 and 1993.