Feliks Topolski – The Art Of War

Feliks Topolski’s (1907 – 1989) mission was to ‘bear witness’. He chronicled the great events of the 20th century and the key personalities who fashioned them, in precise and detailed drawings.
Today the Frontline Club strives to continue his observations by promoting independent journalism and freedom of expression worldwide.  Over the next six months we will be celebrating this extraordinary artist by exhibiting over 35 drawings, paintings and some chronicle extracts throughout our building.

‘The Art of War’ exhibition has been curated by Karen Davies and is supported by The Duval Foundation.

Allied troops entering a burning German town.

Born in Warsaw in 1907 Feliks Topolski arrived in Britain in 1935 and  quickly found a market for his stylish, incisive and witty depictions of life. His vivid images informed a wide and receptive audience as he visited every front during World War II and exploited his uncanny  knack of being in the right place at the right time while roaming the world for the next 40 years.
In between trips he documented the changing cultural and social life of Britain, using his drawings as raw material for paintings and murals he created in his studio  under London’s Hungerford Bridge. He published a fortnightly broadsheet of his drawings – Topolski’s Chronicle – and in 1975 began his greatest single piece of work – the epic   ‘Memoir of the Century’. A vast mural, 600 foot long, 20 foot high on 211 separate wood panels, it tells the story of the 20th Century. Unveiled 10 years later, Topolski donated it to the nation and continued to work on it until his death in 1989. 
A £3.3m appeal has recently been launched to restore the painting.
To contribute please email [email protected].

RAF station. British and Polish flags. 1941.

Winston Churchill. Penguin print of which 25,000 have been lithographed and the plates destroyed.