Sculptor, painter and printmaker Marek Szwarc (aka Schwarz) was born in Zgierz, Poland on 9 May 1892 and moved to Paris in 1910 to study sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercié, living alongside fellow Ecole de Paris artists in the settlement known as La Ruche. He collaborated with other Jewish artists from Eastern Europe to publish the art journal 'Machmadim'. He returned to Lodz in 1914, travelling to Ukraine and Russia in 1918, visiting local Jewish literary circles and studying sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts, before returning to Lodz in early 1919 and joining the Young Yiddish Group co-founded by Jankel Adler. In June 1920, Szwarc returned to Paris, initially working as a painter, before turning to sculpture in bas-relief in copper and brass, and then stone, wood and metal. He specialised in religious scenes and portraits in a style that combined neo-classicism with the influence of African sculpture and Jewish folk art. During the Second World War, he enlisted as a volunteer in the Polish Army in France, alongside Jankel Adler. During the war he lived in Scotland and London and continued to practise as an artist, returning to Paris after the war. Marek Szwarc died in Paris, France on 28 December 1958.