Lilian was born in Warsaw, Poland  in 1931. When she was eight years old, Germany’s forces invaded Poland and World War II began. As a young child of Jewish descent, Lilian's name was changed to Liliana Baczewska and she had to go into hiding. By 1945, she had lost most of her family, including her beloved father. After the war, Lilian attended high school in Warsaw and eventually was accepted into the Academy of Fine Arts where she was mentored in the studio of Henryk Tomaszewski, the renowned graphic designer and painter. She graduated from the Academy in 1956. Lilian’s entire Polish career was as a freelance graphic designer. Her work included illustration, book and records jacket design, as well as poster art. A year after graduation from the Academy of Fine Arts, she received the coveted Tadeusz Trepkowski Award for her design of the "July 22nd" poster. Lilian was one of a small group of women who significantly shaped the Polish poster movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s. In 1968, as a new wave of antisemitism gripped the Eastern Bloc, she emigrated with her young son to Toronto, Canada, where she quickly established herself as an important graphic designer working for such institutions as the CBC and the publishing company McClelland & Stewart. Lilian taught in the Department of Illustration, in The School of Visual Arts, at Sheridan College until 1991. Soon after moving to Canada, she officially reclaimed her family name, Lampert.

 

This website predominantly represents Lilian’s work after 1968 when she returned to painting and drawing. It spans a broad spectrum of portraits, landscapes, botanicals and streets scenes, in a variety of media: acrylic, watercolour, pastel, charcoal and graphite. Here we find a wide range of styles from figurative to expressionistic and abstract. Lilian’s work is vivid, gripping, at times disturbing. It speaks of loves lost, dreams and nightmares, the ugliness in beauty, as well as the beauty in ugliness. It is work of the utmost honesty, fuelled by a powerful and original imagination.