The year 2004 is a jubilee year for the Society of the Friends of Fine Arts (TPSP) in Krakow. This oldest organization supporting artists and Polish art in this part of Europe, is celebrating its 150th anniversary.
   In order to add splendor to the occasion I have proposed Professor Juliusz Joniak who is a member to the reorganized Board of the Society and from 2001 its Vice President, that we organize an exhibition of his paintings from the years 1998-2003 in Pałac Sztuki (Palace of Art) and publish an album.
   The suggestion was accepted and now we have the honour and pleasure to admire works of this distinguished painter.
   Juliusz Joniak was born in Lvov which he left, not out of his own free will, at the end of World War II. He chose Krakow as a place of his artistic studies. He studied in two departments at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. He was a student of painting in Professor Czesław Rzepiński’s studio and of graphic art under the guidance of three professors, namely Ludwik Gardowski, Andrzej Jurkiewicz and Konrad Srzednicki.
   In 1955 his academic career began at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and in 1966 he was conferred on the tile of full professor.
   Throughout the years Joniak held different honorable and responsible positions at the Academy. Namely, he was the Head of the Katedra of General Education in the Department of Graphic Art (1971-1975), the Head of Katedra II of Paining in the Department of Painting (1975-1978), Dean of the Department of Painting (1978-1981) and Vice Chancellor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (two terms of office from 1981-1987). Juliusz Joniak used to be a very active member of the Association of Polish Artist and Designers in Krakow in which he held the position of the President of the Painting Section and the Vice Chairman of the Association.
   Prof. Karol Estreicher, the 11th President of the Society of the Friends of Fine Arts in Krakow awarded Juliusz Joniak for his artistic achievements twice. In 1958 he gave him the Bronze Medal for the Salon ’58 and in the following year the Gold Medal of the Society of the Friends of Fine Arts.
   Juliusz Joniak participated in numerous exhibitions in the country and abroad (eg. Venice, Berlin, Helsinki, Athens, Montreal, etc.). In July 1995, after he was awarded the highest prize at the 7th International Art Festival in Magné in France, he became an honorary member of the Academie Européene de Arts in Paris.
   Paintings presented at this exhibition (1st April 2004 – 9th May, 2004) and in the album of Juliusz Joniak’s paining were created in his studio in Zabierzów near Krakow. They are effects of his yearly trips to the south of France and Spain. Undoubtedly, their beauty and harmony also source from the warm and unique atmosphere of his home in which his artist wife Teresa Wallis-Joniak upholds the values of tradition.
   I would like to thank Juliusz, Teresa and their daughters Anna and Marta for their help in the preparation of the album and the exhibition and wish them all success on their artistic path and in private life.