The Krakow Art Nouveau Poster
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MAGDALENA CZUBINSKA* УДК 766.069.51(475)”1898/1918” THE KRAKOW ART NOUVEAU POSTER Abstract: The National Museum in Krakow has a Workshops. Called Secesja in Poland, the style made the biggest collection of Polish Art Nouveau poster. The artistic curved, wavy line, flat, contour-enclosed patches, asymmetry, poster phenomena began in Poland very early, in 1894. The unusual proportions, and nature-inspired motifs its greatest Polish artists, such as: Stanislaw Wyspianski, hallmarks, and had an exceptionally large number of names: Wojciech Weiss, Teodor Axentowicz and many others Art Nouveau in France2 , Jugendstil in Germany, Sezessionsstil designed the numerous posters connected with the artistic life in Austria, Stile Floreale in Italy, and Modernismo in Spain. of the city . The poster exhibitions started since 1898. Untill In the early days of the new century, new tendencies the end of the First World War Krakow and Lvov were the emerged expressionism and modernism, which at the very main centers of the Polish art of printing and poster. The outset challenged the premises of the uncontrollable Art author presents the artistic position of Krakow, its greatest Nouveau style3 . artists, the tendencies and influences that were popular in that Defining the phenomena enclosed within the dates time. 1890-1919 poses a considerable problem. The chosen term is Art Nouveau probably the most international and wide. The Key words: Art Nouveau, Poster, Krakow, Fin de term Fin de siècle is imprecise and inaccurate, especially in the siècle, Print, Lithography context of the timeframe and another French term, La Belle Époque, which refers to the beginning of the 20th century. The The National Museum in Krakow came been known Polish terms Secesja or Young Poland have different and for its outstanding collection of late-19th-century and early- imprecise connotations in specialist literature. Derived from 20th-century art. Its holdings of painting and sculpture of that the Austrian Sezessionsstil, the name Secesja suggests Austrian age rank among the best in Poland. Less known are works that roots, while Young Poland4 is associated with the neo- belong to other artistic domains such as graphic design, textile Romantic vein in the art of that epoch and does not define design and the decorative arts. very smartly the directions in the decorative arts. In the mid-19th century, Western Europe came up Conservative circles accustomed to Academism in with the concept of renewing art and adapting it to the new art were very reluctant to accept the new tendencies and spoke needs that emerged in the times of the industrial revolution. very disparagingly of their values, both aesthetic and ethical. The doctrines formulated by John Ruskin and William Morris „It was no secret that the building would be in the Secesja style, have been analysed and presented many times1 . Around 1890, 2Wallis, M., op. cit., p. 14. Some other names sound quite amusing today: the French style 059 a new style exploded, referred to in more different ways than de bouche de Metro (the entrance-to-the-Underground style), style nouille (the noodle any other style in the history of art. On the Polish ground, style), style patisserie (the confectionery style), style tenia (the taenia style), or style epinard (the spinach style). Or the Flemish paling stijl (the eel style); the German theoretical deliberations were rare. Listed among the Belgischer Bandwurm (the Belgian taenia style), Belgischer Schnörkelstil (the Belgian manifestos are Cyprian Kamil Norwid's Promethidion, curlicue style), Moderne Strumfbandlinien (the modern garter line), or Gereizter Regenwurm (the irritated earthworm style). Stanislaw Witkiewicz's essays on the national style and 3 “How to classify that art in which a gamin's hand and the trembling hand of a sex maniac Stanislaw Przybyszewski's Confiteor. The tide of renewal join dangerously, and which seems to be a result of premature alcoholism working hand reached Poland in no time. The principal centre of art was in hand with senile licentiousness,' wrote Josephin Peladan, quoted after M. Wallis, „Przemiany w pogladach na secesje“ in: Sztuka okolo 1900. Materialy Sesji Historykow Krakow, with its School of Fine Arts, the exclusive „Sztuka“ Sztuki, Warsaw 1969, p. 10. Association of Polish Artists, the Polish Applied Arts Society, 4While T. Dobrowolski writes: „ …The art of Young Poland is Janus-faced: one face is turned away from reality and looks into the creative self, something typical of an the Museum of Technology and Industry, and the Krakow introverted disposition, and the other – turned towards people and the nation, and * Magdalena Czubinska, Art Historian, The National Museum, Krakow preoccupied with the country's past and present.“ (Dobrowolski, T., Sztuka Mlodej 1Huml, I., Polska sztuka stosowana XX wieku, Warszawa 1978; Mieczyslaw Wallis, Polski, Warszawa 1963, pp. 8−9), the term „Young Poland fabric“ or „Young Poland lamp“ Secesja, Warsaw 1984. is not used. Магдалена Чубинска 1. Vojćeh Vajs (1875–1950), “Štuka”– X izložba, 1906 2. Jan Bulas (1878–1917), Koncert simfonijskog 1. Wojciech Weiss (1875–1950), “Sztuka” – 10th orkestra, 1910 Exhibition, 1906 2. Jan Bulas (1878–1917), The Orchestra of Harmony's Symphony Concert, 1910 and the very name testified to felony: he who built in the fashion. Some of the positive outcomes were scientific studies Secesja style had to be – by definition – a socialist, anarchist, of the fine arts, belles-lettres and ideology of the time. The atheist, apostate; not a Pole nor nursed by a Polish mother“.5 A iconosphere of that art was identified as predilection for the pamphlet by the Krakow painter Ludomir Benedyktowicz elements (water and fire), plants (lilies, irises, cyclamens, entitled The Provenance of „Secesja“ in Painting and Sculpture chestnut flowers and orchids), animals (peacocks, swans, 060 – Its Flowers and Fruit in Our Garden put it clearly that Secesja butterflies and dragonflies), and fantasy creatures (Pegasus, was the daughter of Caricature and Japanese Contour chimeras, unicorns and sirens). Emphasising the symbolic „…wriggling like a horse leech or halter hurled on a dog's neck significance of life, maternity, eroticism and death, the by a catcher “. And along similar lines: „I dread to think … iconography defined that iconosphere. what human race will in time be born by Polish mothers who, „It was in Galicia7 , particularly in Krakow, that the with every step they take, look up to the monstrous forms of art of Young Poland started budding. Warsaw, with its strong the masterpieces created in that spirit“.6 positivist traditions, did not respond to the frequent eccentri- The art of the period under discussion, including cities of neo-Romanticism and symbolism approvingly. Gali- applied art, definitely looked on negatively in the ante-bellum cia was an odd land, neglected in every respect. Illiteracy, and until the end of the 1960s. As the pendulum swings back dwarfed industry and the conservative Stanczyk bloc holding and forth, so the negative approach changed into a lasting power on the one hand, and a Polish educational system (the 5Irzykowski, K., Paluba. Sny Marii Dunin, Lvov, 1903. 7The Southeastern part of Poland, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 6Wallis, M., Przemiany w pogladach na secesje, op. cit., p. 10. 19th century untill 1918. ART NOUVEAU ПЛАКАТИ У КРАКОВУ 3. Kazimjež Sičulski (1879–1942), Kolektivna izložba 3. Kazimierz Sichulski (1879–1942), General Polish poljske arhitekture, skulpture i slikarstva, Lavov Exhibition of Architecture, Sculpture and Painting, 1910 Lvov 1910 lands under Russian and Prussian empires had their in 1885), and the Academy of Arts and Sciences (which educational system) and two Polish Universities in Krakow evolved from the Krakow Society of Sciences in 1873), and Lvov on the other, provided a nearly optimum continued their activities incessantly. They created a network environment in which the new art could flourish“.8 of secondary and vocational schools. In 1873, headed by Note that in the latter half of the 19th century, Krakow painter Jan Matejko and subsequently Julian Falat, the School mayors ran efficient programmes for the accelerated of Fine Arts became an independent institution and educated 061 modernisation of the city. In 1866, the authorities of the generations of the most celebrated Polish artists. In 1879, it Austrian occupant restored municipal self-government, and moved to a new building at what is now Matejko Square, and elections for the City Council took place. When he nominated in 1900 received the status of Academy of Fine Arts. Another to be Mayor, Professor Jozef Dietl devised a bold plan for the educational project was Adrian Baraniecki's courses for city's development and modernisation. A variety of economic, young men and women, and the women's lectures soon community and cultural initiatives were undertaken that transformed into the Adrian Baraniecki Women's Courses in helped Krakow, an inarguably provincial city, become a Higher Education. It was not until 1894 when was allowed to significant and modern investment centre, rich in academic women to attend university lectures as „visitors“. Sculptor and artistic circles, with a flourishing intellectual life. The Teofila Certowicz set up first art school for women in 1897, Jagiellonian University, the State School of Industry (which where Wlodzimierz Tetmajer taught painting classes. superseded the former Institute of Technology and Industry In 1910, Krakow was fifth-rate among the cities of 8Dobrowolski, S., Sztuka Mlodej Polski, Warszawa 1963, p. 7. the Austrian Monarchy, overshadowed only by Vienna, Магдалена Чубинска 4. Stanislav Fabijanski (1865–1947), Prva izložba 5. Feliks Vigživalski (1875-1944), Kolektivna radova poljskih umetnika, 1901 umetnička izložba u Lavovu, 1894 4. Stanisław Fabijanski (1865–1947), First Exhibition 5. Feliks Wygrzywalski (1875–1944), General Art of Works by Polish Artists, 1901 Exhibition in Lvov, 1894 Trieste, Prague and Lvov. This successful period continued Workshops – an association established in 1913, which until World War I.