Janina Krzemińska (born January 1, 1927, in Łódź – died 1996 in Warsaw) was a Polish graphic artist, illustrator, and painter best known for her work for children. She also worked in puppet animation, designing sets and puppet characters.
After World War II, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 1951, having previously studied at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Sopot. She worked across various disciplines, including graphic art, painting, and puppet film.
In 1957, Krzemińska became the art director of the popular children’s magazine Miś, a position she held for many years. She illustrated mainly children’s books and collaborated closely with major Polish publishers such as Nasza Księgarnia and Ruch.
Her most recognizable works include illustrations for:
Our Magical Mom by Joanna Papuzińska,
What the Cherry Trees Whispered About by Czesław Janczarski,
Behind the Hedge by Maria Kownacka,
and Mateuszek on the Enchanted Island by Stefania Szuchowa.
She also illustrated titles in the popular children’s series Read to Me, Mommy, such as The Wet Glutton, The Neighbors by Maria Kowalewska, and The Great Adventure of Little Zosia by Barbara Lewandowska—the latter marking her debut as a book illustrator in 1957.
Krzemińska’s artwork accompanied texts by numerous Polish authors including Lucyna Krzemieniecka, Jadwiga Korczakowska, Anna Świrszczyńska, Helena Bechlerowa, and Maria Terlikowska.
From 1959 to 1983, she worked with the renowned Se-Ma-For Studio for Small Film Forms, where she created set designs and visuals for puppet and animated films, as well as for the live-action movie Bedtime Stories directed by Sławomir Idziak.
Miś was a magazine aimed at preschool-aged children and published from 1957 to 2010. Initially a biweekly and later a monthly, its first issue appeared on February 15, 1957, published by the Nasza Księgarnia Publishing Institute. The magazine became extremely popular, especially during its early decades, with annual print runs ranging between 7.3 and 8.7 million copies from the late 1950s to 1974.
As a visually driven magazine, Miś prioritized illustrations and commissioned the best Polish illustrators to bring its stories and poems to life. While artists like Bohdan Butenko, Hanna Czajkowska, and Zbigniew Rychliński frequently contributed, Janina Krzemińska holds the record. According to research by Zbigniew Rogoż, her name appears alongside 1,002 illustrations in the magazine—twice as many as Butenko.
Known for her cheerful personality and great sense of humor, Krzemińska was deeply committed to introducing children to the natural world. She made sure Miś regularly featured animal characters. In her home archive, a collection of four-panel comic strips featuring a bear character—once printed on the magazine’s back cover in the 1960s—has been preserved.
Krzemińska’s style is characterized by simple, elemental forms combined with varied, vibrant color patches. She favored warm colors—reds, oranges, yellows, and browns—enhanced with contrasting accents of black and white.
She also had experience designing cut-out paper toy books for children—interactive and tactile works that added another dimension to her creativity.
1986 – Illustration for Children: Budapest, Sofia, Berlin.
Our Magical Mom – illustrations by Janina Krzemińska, text by Joanna Papuzińska
The Wet Glutton – illustrations by Janina Krzemińska, text by Barbara Lewandowska (Nasza Księgarnia, 1976)
Behind the Hedge – illustrations by Janina Krzemińska, text by Maria Kownacka
Mateuszek on the Enchanted Island – illustrations by Janina Krzemińska, text by Stefania Szuchowa
The Great Adventure of Little Zosia – illustrations by Janina Krzemińska, text by Barbara Lewandowska
The Neighbors – illustrations by Janina Krzemińska, text by Maria Kowalewska
The Earthworm – illustrations by Janina Krzemińska, text by Dorota Gellner (Zrzeszenie Księgarstwa, Warsaw, 1986)
Four Bears and the Fifth One – concept and illustrations by Janina Krzemińska, text by Helena Bechlerowa (Nasza Księgarnia, 1966)
What the Cherry Trees Whispered About – illustrations by Janina Krzemińska, text by Czesław Janczarski (Nasza Księgarnia, 1970)
