Adorning the side of the Czesław Nieman Primary School No. 168, the mural was painted not just to celebrate the school’s 60th anniversary but to mark the 85th year since Niemen’s birth and the 20th year since his death.
The mural was authored by the artist Ola Jasionowska and depicts a side profile of a lavishly sideburned Niemen painted using an intense color palette of yellow, blue and orange.
Featuring two vinyl records either side of Niemen’s head, the mural also comes captioned with the school motto, a lyric from one of the star’s best-known hits: “... but there are more people of good will.”
Who was Czesław Niemen?
Celebrated as one of Poland’s greatest musicians, Niemen was born Czesław Juliusz Wydrzycki in 1939 in Stare Wasiliszki in what is now Belarus.
Demonstrating his musical talent from an early age, residents recall him leading the church choir as well as singing at weddings to earn extra money.
As part of the Polish minority living in the ‘eastern borderlands’ that were later absorbed into the Soviet Union, the Wydrzycki family relocated to Poland in the 1950s, partially so that the young Czesław could avoid being drafted into the Soviet army.
Cutting his teeth playing in Gdańsk’s famed Żak club, he supplemented his earnings by tuning pianos and working odd jobs in the city’s shipyards. His breakthrough, though, would not be long in coming.
Named a ‘laureate’ at the 1962 Young Talents Festival in Szczecin, the following year he performed at the first edition of the Festival of Polish Songs in Opole.
That same year, while touring in France, he switched surnames from Wydryzcki to the eminently more pronounceable Niemen—after the river running close to his childhood home.
Fame was beckoning and 1964 saw him picked to open for Marlene Dietrich when she played at Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science.
Impressed by his rendition of ‘Czy mnie jeszcze pamiętasz?’, the songstress snapped up the copyright for $400. Repackaging the tune as ‘Mutter, hast du mir vergeben?’, Dietrich later rerecorded it in London backed by Burt Bacharach's orchestra.
His finest hour was yet to come. As the swinging sixties hit their stride, Niemen seized on the spirit of the time to become one of the first Polish entertainers to embrace the counter-culture look. Sporting a style that was pure Carnaby Street, Niemen’s long hair and exuberant outfits put him at odds with the authorities but elevated him in the eyes of Poland’s rebellious youth.
Revolutionizing Poland’s musical landscape, Niemen’s sensitive ballads paired beautifully alongside his use of modern instruments such as the mellotron, Hammond organ and Moog synthesizer.
Enjoying a particularly purple patch in the mid-to-late 1960s, it was in this period that Niemen penned songs such as ‘Dziwny jest ten świat,’ ‘Pod papugami’ and arguably his best-known hit, the ultimate ode to Warsaw, ‘Sen o Warszawie.’
Often bridging genres such as progressive rock, psychedelic, soul, jazz and blues, Niemen became the voice of a generation and is fondly remembered as an icon whose style and sound redefined Poland’s cultural boundaries.
Dying of cancer in 2004, his legacy echoes to this day, not least in his adopted city of Warsaw, where fans of Legia football club have adopted Sen o Warszawie as their anthem.
In addition to the latest mural in Saska Kępa, two other XL artworks honoring the singer can be found in Warsaw in the western district of Wola and in the northeastern suburb of Żerań.
