DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41588#0016
representing the avant-garde and others, non-allicd to the decorative-national style which was
severely criticized sor its supersicial stylization and naive subjects. The quest for national art was
called parochial. 4
The two tendencies corresponded in part to the political orientations os the Right and Lest
respectively and were related to the ideologies os each. Advocates os Art Deco, osten sormat soldiers
os Jdzes Pilsudski’s Legions, having taken ost their unisorms, were anxious to consolidate the
independence sought sor with so much essort and to underline it also in art. This is why they were
deliberately opposed to the international style represented by the Constructivist avant-garde
censured in Poland at that time sor its ominous links with Bolshevism. This orientation was
represented by the groups Blok (est. 1924) and Praesens (est. 1926).
The polemics intensified besore the Paris exhibition in 1925. Prompted by patriotic motives, the
artists who prepared it presented themselves as the continuators os native traditions, sor which their
opponents castigated them as conservatists Of even obscurantists. This opinion was unjust but it was
caused by the excessive zeal with which the solk art origin was emphasized and the inspirations of solk
woodcuts, painting on glass, wood-carving, weaving, Easter egg painting, etc.s reserred to. In sact,
only some os the Art Deco advocates genuinely drew srom that arsenal os means os expression while
the majority did not go beyond a sascination with the renaissance os this art in the natural rural
environment. They were more interested in workmanship, old methods, tools, and recipes than in the
existing patterns. Toconjure up the native mood, artists os the earlier periods would also convey their
image os rural lise, shown in works created during the Young Poland period with coloursul wedding
pageants, dances at inns, peasant portraits in sestive clothes, etc. The antagonists saw in it an exalted
idealization os peasantry.
In sact, the return to solk art traditions in the 1920s was symbolic rather than literal. To some
extent, it had an emotional background, and the stylization acted as propaganda os Polishness in the
best sense os the word propaganda. Many individual works were sree os direct influence os solk art
patterns and revealed a sascination rather with contemporary French art. Folk art inspirations were
the most evident in the subject-matter, especially in Zosia Stryjchska’s samous scries os paintings
devoted to customs and dances. Her large panneaux os the Four Seasons (sig. 4) decorated the main
wall os the Polish pavilion at the Paris exhibition in 1925. A good deal has been written about those six
paintings, impressive not only sor their size. (They were awarded a Grand Prixjl Let us quote the
opinion os the painter and art critic Waclaw Husarski who visited the artist when she was working on
the series in a provisional studio at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. He wrote in the sourth issue os the
journal Patti (Madame) in. 1925: ’’Stryjenska’s imagination, sustained by genuinely national subjects,
made it certain that, thanks to their distinctness, the paintings would at sirst glance distinguishe the
Polish separation srom the neighbouring ones... Not only is the artist’s soul permeated with serenity...
and buoyant spirit; they also radiate srom their paintings. Stryjeriska’s originality consists in
a peculiar mixture os wit and prosound, mystic poetry, a unique combination os the present and
a santastic evocation os the prehistoric,Slav world. Yet the secret os this art lies in its image os reality
larger than lise which in her panneaux reaches a truly Homeric dimension”.7
Let us add that the neat, almost rigurous manner os composition, the treatment os the individual
sigures as typically decorative and expressive elements, the disciplined drawing a nd the use os colour
in accordance with the stylistic rules os Art Deco seem to desy the prevailing misconception about the
direct links between this art and solk art. Here wc desinitely have a Polish variation os the style. It
satissies ail the criteria by which it is characterised, ranging from the euphoric mood and the linear
handling os sursaces to the basic decorative rhythm, though the means os expression are disferent and
so is the buoyant Slav spirit.
14
severely criticized sor its supersicial stylization and naive subjects. The quest for national art was
called parochial. 4
The two tendencies corresponded in part to the political orientations os the Right and Lest
respectively and were related to the ideologies os each. Advocates os Art Deco, osten sormat soldiers
os Jdzes Pilsudski’s Legions, having taken ost their unisorms, were anxious to consolidate the
independence sought sor with so much essort and to underline it also in art. This is why they were
deliberately opposed to the international style represented by the Constructivist avant-garde
censured in Poland at that time sor its ominous links with Bolshevism. This orientation was
represented by the groups Blok (est. 1924) and Praesens (est. 1926).
The polemics intensified besore the Paris exhibition in 1925. Prompted by patriotic motives, the
artists who prepared it presented themselves as the continuators os native traditions, sor which their
opponents castigated them as conservatists Of even obscurantists. This opinion was unjust but it was
caused by the excessive zeal with which the solk art origin was emphasized and the inspirations of solk
woodcuts, painting on glass, wood-carving, weaving, Easter egg painting, etc.s reserred to. In sact,
only some os the Art Deco advocates genuinely drew srom that arsenal os means os expression while
the majority did not go beyond a sascination with the renaissance os this art in the natural rural
environment. They were more interested in workmanship, old methods, tools, and recipes than in the
existing patterns. Toconjure up the native mood, artists os the earlier periods would also convey their
image os rural lise, shown in works created during the Young Poland period with coloursul wedding
pageants, dances at inns, peasant portraits in sestive clothes, etc. The antagonists saw in it an exalted
idealization os peasantry.
In sact, the return to solk art traditions in the 1920s was symbolic rather than literal. To some
extent, it had an emotional background, and the stylization acted as propaganda os Polishness in the
best sense os the word propaganda. Many individual works were sree os direct influence os solk art
patterns and revealed a sascination rather with contemporary French art. Folk art inspirations were
the most evident in the subject-matter, especially in Zosia Stryjchska’s samous scries os paintings
devoted to customs and dances. Her large panneaux os the Four Seasons (sig. 4) decorated the main
wall os the Polish pavilion at the Paris exhibition in 1925. A good deal has been written about those six
paintings, impressive not only sor their size. (They were awarded a Grand Prixjl Let us quote the
opinion os the painter and art critic Waclaw Husarski who visited the artist when she was working on
the series in a provisional studio at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. He wrote in the sourth issue os the
journal Patti (Madame) in. 1925: ’’Stryjenska’s imagination, sustained by genuinely national subjects,
made it certain that, thanks to their distinctness, the paintings would at sirst glance distinguishe the
Polish separation srom the neighbouring ones... Not only is the artist’s soul permeated with serenity...
and buoyant spirit; they also radiate srom their paintings. Stryjeriska’s originality consists in
a peculiar mixture os wit and prosound, mystic poetry, a unique combination os the present and
a santastic evocation os the prehistoric,Slav world. Yet the secret os this art lies in its image os reality
larger than lise which in her panneaux reaches a truly Homeric dimension”.7
Let us add that the neat, almost rigurous manner os composition, the treatment os the individual
sigures as typically decorative and expressive elements, the disciplined drawing a nd the use os colour
in accordance with the stylistic rules os Art Deco seem to desy the prevailing misconception about the
direct links between this art and solk art. Here wc desinitely have a Polish variation os the style. It
satissies ail the criteria by which it is characterised, ranging from the euphoric mood and the linear
handling os sursaces to the basic decorative rhythm, though the means os expression are disferent and
so is the buoyant Slav spirit.
14