Bolesław (Beniamin) Pacanowski (1901-1977) was born in Łódź. His father, Piotr (Pinkus), was a middle-income merchant, his mother Helena (Hendla), née Gajzler, took care of nine children. Bolesław was not the only artistically talented member of the family: his brother Hilary was an architect, sister Natalia Pacanowska-Haltrecht an art historian, Ewa and Róża (Rachela called Zula) - amateur actresses.
Pacanowski completed secondary school in Łódź, passing the Matura exam as an extramural student. He then studied at Ryszard Radwański's Drawing and Painting School, at Maurycy Trębacz's private school and under Konstanty Mackiewicz. Before the war he worked in the architectural offices of, among others, Jerzy Müntz (Minc), Józef Łęczycki and his brother Hilary Pacanowski (biographical information based on a biography sent to Józef Sandel, letter of 15 June 1961, Jewish Historical Institute Archive).
After the outbreak of World War II, he and his family found themselves in Soviet-occupied Białystok. From 1940, he worked as a stage designer in opera theatres in the USSR, among others in Frunze and Zaporizhia. After the Third Reich invaded the Soviet Union, the family was separated. His wife Millicent (Mary), née Flatau, and two daughters, stayed in Białystok. His wife and younger daughter Alexandra probably perished at Treblinka; his older daughter Anna survived the Auschwitz camp and left for the UK after the war. In July 1944, Pacanowski remarried, to Wiera (Wenera) Katashov, and a son, Anatol, was born of their marriage. The whole family came to Poland in 1946. (registration at the CKŻP, Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute, sign P30, Pbn15).
In 1947, when, on the initiative of the Jewish Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, the Sztuka Artistic and Painting Work Cooperative was organised in Łódź, Pacanowski became one of its members. In the painting and sculpting studio established at the Sztuka cooperative, artists were involved in designing and creating works of applied art (posters, book graphics, press drawings and applied arts). Pacanowski was also a member of the ephemeral association Grupa Ośmiu, whose members included Majer Apelbaum, Mojżesz Boruszek, Rafał Chwoles, Karol Piasecki, Adam Muszka, Irena Adler-Molga and Józef Pasmanik. Pacanowski was also the author of set designs for the Jewish stage; the POLIN Museum collection contains 27 scenographic designs from the years 1949-1951.
From 1952, Pacanowski worked at the Youth House of Culture in Łódź. In 1969, he and his wife Vera left Poland. He died in 1977 in the United States. (For more: see the Pacanowski papers collection, MPOLIN-A18).
The collection of Bolesław Pacanowski's post-war works in the POLIN Museum's collection is testimony to the continuation of Jewish art in Poland after the Second World War, despite the Holocaust. Its meaning and sense lie in the reference to the interwar tradition of Jewish art – through the choice of Jewish religious, cultural (The Portrait of Mendele Mojcher Sforim) and ludic (Jewish Musicians) motifs, as well as references to the ``Jewish`` technique of forging in metal.
Renata Piątkowska
