Joseph Pyrz

He was born on 17 February 1946 in Gawłówek, Poland, and died there on 24 Sept 2016 while on a visit.

As a child in Poland, he contracted tuberculosis of the bone at age 4, which affected his gait for the rest of his life.

He received medical care, and an education, first at the Children's Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Istebna and then at the Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Zakopane.

Also known as the "Prophet" ("Prorok"), Joseph Pyrz was the co-founder and leader of the hippie movement in Poland in the 1960s and 1970s.

For a year he studied at the State Secondary School of Fine Arts in Zakopane, and then transferred to the State Secondary School of Fine Arts in Kielce, where he studied sculpture and graduated in 1965.

He then enrolled at the Academy of Catholic Theology in Warsaw, and received a bachelor's degree in the history of philosophy.

Around this time, he became a Christian.

He also developed an interest in the American hippie movement, and became the leader of a local group.

Considered a role model, he wrote a manifesto for Polish hippies entitled "How to become free?"

Pyrz founded the first hippie communes in the towns of Mokotów and Ożarów Mazowiecki outside Warsaw.

Poland's Soviet-aligned government disapproved, and he was arrested twice, and imprisoned for several months, in 1970 and 1974.

In the late 1970s, to escape persecution in Poland, he and his family emigrated to France and settled in Paris, where he worked as a sculptor.

He created more than 200 works, many of which are permanently exhibited in major European cathedrals.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Pyrz returned with his wife to Poland and spent time in Gawłówek near Bochnia on the edge of the Niepołomice Forest.

Pyrz's art reflected his Catholic faith.

His technique linked his artistic work with life-long spiritual and philosophical reflection.

Polish singer and songwriter Marek Piekarczyk said of Pyrz: "'The Prophet' combined hippie love of boundless freedom with Christian faith. That's why he devoted himself to sacred art. When you talked to him, [you felt] great peace from him. . . .[T]his was a man who found what he was looking for."

In 1972, he married Mira Maria; they had four children.

Józef Pyrz, known in France as Joseph or Jonasz Pyrz, was a Polish sculptor, poet and philosopher who lived in France from 1979 until his death.

In the 1980s, Pyrz became friends with the French composter Olivier Messiaen and his wife Yvonne Loriod.

Messiaen commissioned a sculpture of St. François d'Assise that was displayed at the Opéra Garnier during performances in 1983.

He also became friends with French art collectors Jacqueline and Claude Reslinger.

Pyrz was living in Paris but made an annual trip back to Gawłówek and would visit the Reslingers on the way.

When the Reslingers moved to Schorbach on the Palatinate border, they asked Pyrz for a sculpture to display in their garden.

Pyrz eventually created more than 30 sculptures for the Reslingers, including the Ten Commandments in reddish-brown sandstone.

To display Pyrz's life-sized wooden sculptures, Reslingers built a wood and glass house and a 300-meter Great Garden in Schorbach, now called the Centre d'Art.

His works are on display in cathedrals through Europe and the UK, including the Basilca of the Sacré-Cœur in Paris, Częstochowa Cathedral in Poland, and Durham Cathedral and Chester Cathedral in the United Kingdom.

His sculptures include a representation of Saint Rita at the Basilica of Sacré Coeur de Montmartre, a statue of the Annunciation at the Galilee Chapel at Durham Cathedral in England, and a carving of St. Werburgh in the Lady Chapel at Chester Cathedral.

In 1988, he staged a travelling exhibition in England.

Eleven works are on display at the Spiritual Centre of the Pomarèd, seven in wood and four in stone.

A selection of his works and their locations include:

At the opening of an exhibition in 2006, Pyrz said, "Sculpture for me is space, form and time. It is a different dimension than painting. Painting for me is poetry, it is a kind of momentary explosion of very reflective inspiration. On the contrary, sculpture, as if it were vowing to time, develops in time [and] space."