Directory:Richard Tylman
Richard Tylman (born January 30, 1952) is a Polish-Canadian poet and painter. Born in Kraków, Poland, as Ryszard Tylman, he has lived in Vancouver, Canada, since 1982. Tylman graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków in 1979.
Life
Tylman was the first of two children of Edward Tylman, professor of engineering from the Kraków University of Technology, and Danuta Krupa, college teacher of nursing. Following his graduation he worked as an arts instructor and theatre stage designer. Tylman left Poland in 1981 and settled in Vancouver, where he pursued a career in graphic arts. He became a Canadian citizen in 1985.
Poetry
Tylman's free verse poetry first appeared when he self-published it in “Skarpa”, a student newspaper he had set up. The work appeared with an introduction by the Rector of Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts. While in Canada, Tylman continued writing poetry, articles, and essays in Polish throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, publishing a volume of poetry called Koty marcowe (The Felines of March) in Warsaw in 2002. The book features an epic poem called "O próbie wysadzenia pomnika Lenina" (An Attempt at Blowing Up the Statue of Lenin).
Tylman began writing poetry in English nearly a decade after becoming a Canadian citizen, and has self-published several limited editions of verse in English and Polish, including Imaginary Lovers, Living Inside the Moving Landscape, Privilege / Przywilej, Wax Poetics, and Selections From an Old Shoebox. As featured poet, Tylman performed at the Gala of the 2005 Heart of the City Festival broadcasted in Vancouver by Shaw Cable TV. Gala stage reading at the 2nd Annual Heart of the City Festival, held in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver; and co-sponsored by the Carnegie Community Centre. Filmed by ICTV, broadcasted by Shaw Cable throughout 2006.
Visual arts
In his early teens, Tylman became the youngest member of the Plastic Arts’ Club for adults at the DK HiL Community Centre in Nowa Huta, and exhibited his first oil paintings in gallery group show. Following high school he enrolled at the Kraków University of Technology Faculty of Architecture. However, within two years it was clear he didn’t share his father's aspirations, and in 1974, under the tutorage of professional artists Ewa and Ryszard Mrozowski, Tylman passed the entrance exams to the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts Faculty of Painting.
In opposition to the then-leading trend toward post-expressionism in the Academy, Tylman maintained his artistic interest in hyperrealist painting. He defended his Thesis at the atelier of Prof. Andrzej Strumiłło in 1979. A year later, Tylman was chosen by the Kraków regional curator of the Association of the Polish Artists and Designers to represent Kraków at a national juried exhibition in Wrocław of “the most distinguishable individualities among painters of the new generation”. He was a setdesign assistant at People's Theatre of Kraków before emigrating to Canada.
While in Canada Tylman worked as an airbrush illustrator, and his illustrations were used on billboards and in various magazines. Tylman was part of a team which received an Award of Excellence at the 1991 Graphex competition in the category of illustration series for a series of illustrations provided by Tylman and used in a promotional campaign.
Bibliography
Poetry
- Selections From an Old Shoebox (Vancouver: Aspidistra Press, 1998)
- Privilege / Przywilej (Vancouver: Aspidistra Press, 1999)
- Wax Poetics (Vancouver: Aspidistra Press, 2000)
- Living Inside the Moving Landscape (Vancouver: Aspidistra Press, 2000)
- Imaginary Lovers, and Other Poems (Vancouver: Aspidistra Press, 2001) [1]
- Koty marcowe: The Felines of March (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Nowy Świat, 2002) ISBN 83-88576-94-1
Anthologies
- Strumień Rocznik twórczy [2] (Vancouver: Strumień Pub., 1999, Vol. 1, ISSN 1488-8513)
- Strumień Rocznik twórczy [3] (Vancouver: Strumień Pub., 2000, Vol. 2, ISSN 1488-8513)
- Nowa Huta: Okruchy życia i meandry historii - Photo Anthology (Kraków, Wydawnictwo Towarzystwo Słowaków w Polsce, 2003) ISBN 83-89186-67-5
Selected sources
(in English)
- Richard Tylman, Imaginary Lovers (Vancouver BC: Aspidistra Press, 2001) p. 64.
(in Polish)
- Bogumił Pacak-Gamalski, "Anonsy wydawnicze" (Vancouver: Strumień, 2004, Vol. 3) p. 29
- Małgorzata Szymczyk-Karnasiewicz, "Mowa ojczysta nie spowszednieje mi nigdy" (Kraków: Głos – Tygodnik Nowohucki, 2003-08-08, Vol. 32-644) p. 9.
- Ryszard Tylman, Koty marcowe (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Nowy Świat, 2002) p. 120.
- Krystyna Misiewicz, Genealogia Rodziny Tylmanów (Wrocław - Warsaw, 1994)