Antoni Sulek Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1951 - d. 1988

Antoni Sulek was born in February, 1951 to Polish parents Piotr and Julia.
Antoni discovered painting at the age of four and at his school, the Roman Catholic, St Benet Biscop High School in Bedlington, his talent was recognised and teachers would call upon him if any drawing was required.
After school he spent two years studying commercial art at Ashington college but became very disenchanted with it because it interfered with his painting.
Antoni feverishly covered every surface he could lay his hands on- paper, card, hardboard, plywood, wallpaper, record sleeves, with his incredible images.
He cared little for food and clothes or how he lived, as long as he had a brush and paper. Antoni said, "Life is too short. My paintings will last long. Why worry about life?"
He didn't drink or smoke and friends would be turned away if he was creating!
Recurring themes in Antoni's work are War (strongly anti-militarist), religion, architecture and topography (particularly his ancestral homeland, Poland), 19th Century classical music and darker corners of the human psyche.
In 1986 Antoni, left the family home, in Morpeth, and moved to Manchester, where he believed there was a more active art scene, but on Christmas eve, 1987 Antoni telephoned his parents to say he was ill.
He was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham on Christmas Day, he was gravely ill. He contracted a viral infection of the liver and a transplant was the only option. The first organ was rejected and after a second operation, Antoni died on January 8th, 1988 at the age of 37.
He was buried in Morpeth, Northumberland with a gravestone designed by his sister, Wanda.
Like other artists who made their mark on the world, he was not only talented but temperamental and single minded. He was hard to know and possibly even harder to like but...did the world lose a genius?