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Jan Jakob Kamienski
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Artist, cartoonist, author.
Born at Poznan, Poland on 9 May 1923, only child of musicology professor and composer Lucjan Kamienski and lyric soprano Linda Harder, he began art training there then studied at Ecole des Arts et Metiers in Paris, France. During the Second World War, he was recruited into the Polish Resistance to the Nazi regime. He studied painting and graphics at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and worked at a film studio before moving to Canada in 1949 and settling at Winnipeg where he found work as a commercial artist.
From 1958 to 1980, he was an editorial cartoonist for the Winnipeg Tribune. He also wrote columns, art criticism, and restaurant reviews, and directed and animated films and television commercials. It was said that he brought to his work a wide-ranging knowledge and history and politics, and a healthy sense of the ridiculous. In 1968, he served as President of the Winnipeg Press Club and designed mugs, yearbooks, and sets for its annual Beer and Skits event. After the closure of the Tribune in 1980, he worked at the Winnipeg Sun until retirement in 1988. Three collections of his political cartoons, each entitled Kamienski: 100 Cartoons were published by the Sun, in 1981, 1982, and 1983. He turned to painting full time in 1991. He published a memoir of his experiences during childhood and the Second World War, entitled Hidden in the Enemy’s Sight: Resisting the Third Reich From Within (2008).
He was married twice, first in March 1948 to artist Christine Bollerhoff (?-?) in Soviet-occupied East Germany with whom he would have a daughter, Barbara Kamienski (?-2019) before divorcing in 1962. Later, he had a second daughter by an informal relationship. Finally, he married Nadya Zurkowski. He enjoyed boating on the Red River and Lake Winnipeg. He had an extensive library of books in Polish, German, English, and Russian, and a collection of classical, jazz, and soul music.
He died at Winnipeg on 26 March 2010.
See also:
MHS Archives: The Art of Jan Kamienski
“City cartoonist, author a ‘Renaissance man’” by Morley Walker, Winnipeg Free Press, 4 April 2010, page D4.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 17 April 2010.
Obituary, The Globe and Mail, 17 April 2010, page S11.
Jan Kamienski, JanKamienka.ca.
“A special tribute to Barbara Kamienski ('71),” NTCI Foundation, 15 November 2020.
Winnipeg Divorce File Index, 1917-1984, Archives of Manitoba.
We thank Barbara Kamienski and Leonard Zurkowski for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 12 October 2026
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