Piotr Marek

Piotr Marek was a Polish painter and musician who was a leader of the band Düpą. Piotr was born on November 30, 1950 in Kraków, Poland in artistic family - his father Józef Marek was a painter, sculptor and lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts, while his mother was a conservator-restorer at Wawel Castle and then at Sukiennice in Main Square in Kraków. Surrounded by art, Piotr started drawing, painting and sculpting at young age and by 18 years old he started to paint large surrealistic paintings. At first his paintings were irregular, full of colors and unidentified shapes, but as time went by he focused on details and quickly became one of the leading surrealist painters in Poland. By late 70's his paintings began to became darker and remained so until his death. Around the time of martial law in Poland (1981) he founded a band Düpą with his friend Andrzej "Pudel" Bieniasz. They started to improvise and record cassette tapes with sound collages mixed by Piotr on two Pioneer tape decks. The band played only a handful of shows in various lineups during its existence from 1981 to 1985. The last show was played (and recorded) in Kraków at Piwnica Pod Baranami club on May 1, 1985. Piotr Marek died by hanging in the attic of his apartment on August 4, 1985. He left a lot of recordings and unfinished songs which were later arranged, recorded and performed by Andrzej Bieniasz's band, Püdelsi, founded shortly after Marek's death.