Modus: Prace z historii sztuki (20.2020)

7. Karol Tichy, bed and
design for the young lady’s
room, 1902. Photo from the
collections of the Cabinet of
Engravings of the Academy
of Fine Arts in Kraków
a see p. 225

8. Stanisław Wyspiański, li-
ving room in the apartment
of Zofia and Tadeusz Żeleń-
ski in Kraków, 1904-1905.
Photo from the collections
of the Cabinet of Engravings
of the Academy of Fine Arts
in Kraków
->see p. 226

time, the artists associated with the tpss simplified the forms of the furniture
they were designing, and abandoned the ornaments derived from folk art in
favour of discreet geometrie motifs and subtle hints of folk inspirations, their
expression articulated mostly in the form and materiał of the furniture itself.
Sometimes they abandoned any folk motifs in their furniture projects, but used
them in the interior decoration of the room. Karol Tichys bed designs are an
example of such an evolution. At the tpss exhibition in Warsaw in 1902, and at
the Kraków exhibition in 1903, the artist showed a bed design for a young ladys
bedroom (see: Fig. 7). It was described as follows: “[...] the front is carved with
wide chisels which the author requested to be blunt in order to avoid the banał
polishing of the ornament. The whole front is treated as a solid in which two
vases are moulded, stylized with flowers and leaves. At the back of the bed,
above the headboard, there are carved birds and flowers.” Tichy wished to make
the furniture golden, white and cinnabar. However, in the finał version,“the white
turned too cold, the grey too yellow, the pink and the gold too dirty.”49 The art-
ist also arranged the space around the bed - he hung a rug of his own design
beside it, with simple geometrie ornaments, and he added religious images and
bouquets of tissue paper and tin above the bed. When writing about Tichys
furniture, Trojanowski pointed out that: “this bed has definitely been composed
under the nourishing influence of folk art, but in no way does it slavishly imitate
that art; instead, it pleases the eye with its original and beautiful appearance.”50
The motifs of carved vases can be linked to painted decorations on folk beds. In
1909, Tichy won a competition announced by the Technical-Industrial Museum
in Kraków for the design of bedroom furniture set. It featured a bed with the form
that evolved from his earlier design. This time, the artist abandoned floral orna-
ments in favour of subtle geometrie decorations; he also opted for rectangular
abutments and arches on both sides. This is how the bed was created that was
to become part of a set of furniture - an iconic Polish design. Izydor Grzeluk
wrote that this project is “the most successful, bold and innovative furniture
implementation at the beginning of the twentieth century anywhere, not just
in Poland,” because the artist “focused his fuli attention on finding the simplest
possible solution to the mutual relationship between solids, planes, and lines,
without compromising on the objeefs functionality.”51
The designs by Stanisław Wyspiański and by Jan Rembowski, who was inspired
by Wyspiańskis works, can be seen as examples of simplifying the forms, work-
ing with the precious, high quality materials, and discreet use of folk ornaments.
Wyspiański designed smali sofas, several types of armchairs, a table, and a jar-
diniere for living room of Zofia and Tadeusz Żeleński (see: Fig. 8). The furniture
was madę of light sycamore wood, while the upholstery was amaranth, and that
colour was repeated on the walls. The pieces had strong, geometrie, solid shapes,
reminiscent of simple folk furniture. The designer rejected any kind of decoration;
he used only serration as a free association with folk art, applied in the lower
part of the armchairs, sofas and the jardiniere. Above all, the arrangement of the

49 Pierwsza Wystawa, pp. 1-2.

50 BASPKr., tw, ref. 20029, p. 59, E. Trojanowski, List z Warszawy z powodu wystawy sztuki stoso-
wanej, “Słowo Polskie”, 1902.

51 I. Grzeluk, Polskie meble. Konkurs na sypialnię, “Biuletyn Historii Sztuki”, 61,1999, no. 3-4,
p. 419.

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ARTICLES

Agata Wójcik