Piotr Kowalski
Piotr Kowalski (2 March 1927 – 7 January 2004) was a Polish artist, sculptor, and architect. Kowalski worked in non-traditional materials including electronic and mechanical devices, neon art, large earth works, explosions and other natural phenomena including plant growth and gravity. Kowalski attended MIT in order to study mathematics, but turned to architecture, and then to sculpture.
Piotr Kowalski
Levkowalski · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Full name
- Jan Piotr Kowalski.
- Born
- 1927. · Lviv.
- Died
- 2004. · 4th arrondissement of Paris.
- Nationality
- France and Poland.
- Occupation
- architect, sculptor and installation artist.
- Education
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- Known for
- L'Escalier and Place des Degrés.
- Languages
- French and Polish.
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q573167 · wikipedia · Piotr Kowalski
In this article
Biography
Biography
He immigrated to France as an architect for UNESCO and spent most of the rest of his life in Paris. Along with gallery works, he installed several large outdoors projects.
Piotr Kowalski studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The recorded working language is French and Polish. Employment is recorded with Jagiellonian University. Works named in the authority record are L'Escalier and Place des Degrés. Work by Piotr Kowalski is recorded in the collections of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
Piotr Kowalski was born 2 March 1927 in Lwów, Second Polish Republic (now Lviv, Ukraine). By 1946 he was a refugee of the war living in Brazil. He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1947 to 1952, receiving a Bachelors in Architecture, and maintained relations with MIT throughout his life. He worked as an architect for I. M. Pei from 1952 until 1953, then joined Marcel Breuer as an architect at UNESCO in Paris. He became a fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT in 1978, and continued in that position until 1985. In 1985, he became president of the Ars Technica Association connected to the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie uniting philosophers, artists, scientists such as Jean-Marc Levy-Leblond, Claude Faure, Jean-Max Albert, Sara Holt, Piero Gilardi, Jean-Claude Mocik, reflecting on the relationship between art and new technologies. He was named professor at École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 1987. He died in Paris.
Filmography
Filmography
Deux temps, trois mouvements, Gisèle et Luc Meichler, Centre Georges Pompidou et EXLGM©, Paris, 1982 In Situ Kowalski, Gisèle et Luc Meichler, Paris, EXLGM©, Paris, 1993 Le Cube de la Population, Gisèle et Luc Meichler, Paris, EXLGM©, Paris, 1995 Piotr Kowalski entretien avec Claude Guibert, Encyclopédie audiovisuelle de l'art contemporain, Paris, 1996 Piotr Kowalski, entretiens à propos des projets, Gisèle et Luc Meichler, EXLGM©, Paris, 2000
Outdoor works
Outdoor works
Now 33° 46' 52.24 N 118° 06' 46.07" W, 1965. L'Axe de la Terre 48° 50' 25.21" N 2° 35' 04.17" E. 1992. L'Axe de la Terre Université de Marne la Vallée, L'Arche de Saint-Quentin en Yvelines 48° 47' 23.55" N 2° 02' 08.92" E Place des Degrés (Place Blaise Pascal) 48° 53' 22.93 N 2° 14' 08.40" E Le Grand Escalier 48° 53' 29" N 2° 14' 11" E. 1991-1993. Signal (Tour de Vitry), 48° 47' 19" N 2° 23' 25" E. 1974 Bimetallic, the Metal Forum in Danube Park, (Thermocouple, forum metall Donaulande) Linz, Austria Tour de Créteil 1990. Totem Holographique 1993. Windmill, Yamaguchi Beach 34°00'19.16" N 131°22'25.35" E Sunflower, Daikanyama, Tokyo 35°38'56.39" N 139°42'08.29" E Oike Dori Fountain, Kyoto 35°00'39.40" N 135°46'11.22" E. 1997. Electronic Tree, Morioka Japan
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1927
Piotr Kowalski was born in 1927 at Lviv.
2004
Piotr Kowalski died in 2004 at 4th arrondissement of Paris.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Lviv.
Birth place
4th arrondissement of Paris.
Death place
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Piotr Kowalski, revision 1345170043 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Spring, Bernard P. The explosive forms of Piotr Kowalski. Architectural Forum. 30–35. December 1965.
- 2.TECNOSCIENZE, INTUIZIONE ARTISTICA e AMBIENTE ARTIFICIALE - GAM - Torino.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 7
- Sisyphe géomètre, with Ghérasim Luca (poème), Genève, Impr. Union (Paris), Claude Givaudan|Givaudan 1966
- Le Chant de la carpe, with Ghérasim Luca (poème), Paris, François Di Dio, Le Soleil Noir, 1973
- Kowalski, espaces, épreuves : contient Serre des temps de Henri-Alexis Baatsch ; Cimento : Kowalski by Jean-Christophe Bailly; Idées récurrentes sur l'épreuve du sens de Jacques Dyck, Genève, Givaudan, 1978
- Piotr Kowalski, by Jean-Christophe Bailly : Éditions Hazan, Paris, 1988
- Information Transcript (CDrom édité par le Métafort d'Aubervilliers)
- Art et Science, Hommage à Piotr Kowalski, 20/21 e siècles, Cahiers du Centre Pierre Francastel, n°3, automne 2006
- Piotr Kowalski, A contemporary’s Insights, by Jean-Max Albert, Far-Sited : California International Sculpture Symposium 1965/2015, University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, 2018
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q573167: Piotr KowalskiWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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