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Zofia Stryjeńska
Stryjeńska's work is widely known and easily recognisable. There is
hardly a Pole who has not been exposed to her paintings, which until
the 1970s were reproduced - usually shoddily and without quoting
her name - on countless chocolate boxes, plates or postcards. In fact,
already between the two wars many artists imitated Stryjeńska's
distinctive style, thereby trivialising the originals. Zofia Stryjeńska, née Lubańska (1891-1976), received her education
in private artistic schools in her native Cracow and at the Academy
of Fine Arts in Munich. She made her debut under her maiden name
in 1912, when she exhibited a series of cartons entitled Polish Fables;
a year later she painted a series of watercolours illustrating Polish
Christmas carols. During World War I, she designed picture postcards
depicting scenes from Nativity plays and popular soldier's songs
of Piłsudski's Legions.
She produced her most impressive works while she was married
to Karol Stryjeński, architect and educator. Yet, the union was
not a happy one - as time passed, Stryjeński treated his wife
with increasing harshness; he spread malicious gossip about her
and on two occasions attempted to confine her to a mental institution.
Although the doctors excluded mental disease, the stigma of
'a madwoman' stuck to the artist, who, in her mutiny against the
conventions of middle class morality, would unwittingly get caught
up in society scandals. Aware of her talent, she did not attach much
significance to her achievements. To be loved was what she desired
above all. She lived constantly torn apart between love of her children
and her motherly obligations - and an artist's freedom to follow
her own path. Neither the divorce with Stryjeński nor a short-lived
second marriage gave Zofia the peace and stability she so desired.
And even though her paintings reached exorbitant prices, she forever
struggled to make a living, refusing to treat the creative process as
gainful activity. Yet she was never quite happy with her work - even
at the height of her fame, when she was dubbed the princess of Polish
art and considered the greatest of Europe's female artists.
In fact, success and popularity had accompanied her from
the early days - from the Passover and God Hunt series, as well as
the 1923 pieces - Morning, Evening and Beriot's Concert. In 1925,
she was awarded four Grand Prix and two honorary diplomas
at the International Exhibition of Decorative Art in Paris, where
she exhibited various works, notably the decorative panels entitled
The Four Seasons. Stryjeńska created similar panels for other interiors
(e.g. the Fire and Water panels for the Polish Embassy building
in Sofia; she also painted polychromes for several historical houses
in Warsaw's Old Town (1928). She published two portfolios of colour
lithographs called Slavic Deities, as well as making illustrations for
several books. She designed posters, advertising materials and toys.
On other occasions, she acted as a stage designer or wrote scripts for
musical performances. In 1928, she created the entire visual concept
for the Harnasie ballet by Karol Szymanowski.
The diversity of Stryjeńska's artistic endeavour is a testimony
to her almost unlimited capabilities and an enormous strength of
talent. While she adapted her style to the task at hand, she always
left her distinctive mark on it. The characteristically simplified
forms in her pictures are arranged to create a dynamic, rhythmical
composition that fills the frame from edge to edge. The sensual
spontaneity of the scenes is also reflected in the manner in which
they are presented. This is the nature of Stryjeńska's relationship
with folklore - it goes far beyond the mere choice of topics, which
indeed she derived from ethnographic sources and processed in
a humorous manner so particular to her. She even took liberties with
Slavic deities and legendary Polish kings of the Piast dynasty: in one
of her paintings, the progenitor of the dynasty holds a wheel as if it
were a steering wheel. And her King Casimir the Great is seen with
a cigarette in his hand.
The artist's memoirs, published in 1995 under the title 'Our
almost daily bread', are the best manifestation of her brilliant wit, an
exquisite sense of humour, as well as a view of herself characterised
by simplicity and criticism.
Urszula Makowska Ph.D.
Institute of Art Polish Academy of Sciences