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ART DECO -- POLAND
December 17, 1999 - March 5, 2000
Open daily 11-4 pm

Polish Musem of America
984 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60622
Telephone: 773/ 384-3352

Part II

Another 'lyricist' Art Deco artist represented in "Art Deco -- Poland" is Irena Lorentowicz (1904-1985), whose Madonna and Child shares affinities with artists such as Marie Laurencin or Rene Buthaud in execution, and, in sensibility, with the earlier work of Louis Icart. Although Madonna and Child is impressionistic in brushwork, its compositional elements are dynamic in contour and reveal a strong sense of line and formal balance. The rendering of an angel, who presents a lily in homage, is counter-balanced by a spray of flowers in an almost Chagall-esque manner. Lorentowicz drew upon Christian and, specifically, Polish tradition, but her work underscores how well Art Deco drew upon established motifs and harmonized earlier legacies with the art experiments it accompanied. Ultimately, her work is closer to the Deco style of the French.

Mention must be made of another oil on canvas in this exhibition -- Narcotism, the work of Polish artist Waclaw Borowski (1885-1954). Narcotism has a significant role in this showing; as context and for comparison. In images which recall Picasso's Blue Period, and perhaps the early Franz Marc, Narcotism need only be compared with the oils by Lorentowicz or Pokrzywnicka to reveal how Art Decoratif assimilated and adapted concurrent trends and, in turn, influenced them. Sieradzka noted:

Classicist-like tendencies combined with the rhythm, flatness and harmony of the compositions were the main features of expression in the paintings by Eugeniusz Zak, Waclaw Borowski, Tymon Niesiolowski and Ludomir Slendzinski. Following the French artists, the Polish ones worked as illustrators for magazines, poster authors and graphic designers....

It is a tragedy that the greater part of Borowski's oeuvre perished in World War II. The canvas in the Polish Museum of America's collection is among few surviving originals.

Folk art and tradition was to play an important role within Art Deco, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, and numerous emigres from Hungary, Poland and the Czech lands brought strong national commitments to Paris and Vienna. Their folk art, often perceived as an exoticism from within Europe, was to stimulate and augment Art Deco. One calls to mind Ukrainian-born Cassandre; Josef Czaky, Ilonka and Mariska Karasz, Alexandre Kelety, Gustav Miklos, Adelbert Szabo, Marcel Vertes, Bela Voros (Hungary); Serge Chermayeff or Boris Lovet-Lorski (Russia); Paul Kis (Romania); Jean Perzel (Czech); Jean Lambert-Rucki or Tamara [Gorska] de Lempicka (Poland); and hundreds others. Those who emigrated to centers of patronage and PR, like Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980), often assimilated to their circumstances and are well known in the West. But they brought elements that today are taken for granted. And their colleagues 'at home' continued to innovate national Art Deco expressions. Here, "Art Deco -- Poland" is of immense interest. Much of the left display area is devoted to the Polish school of Art Deco -- folkloric Art Decoratif.

One of the most noted of the national school was Zofia Stryjenska (1891-1976), and her work is well represented in "Art Deco -- Poland." Closest in spirit to the familiar, late Art Deco is her series, "Crafts," which includes four brightly colored renderings: Spinner, Ceramics, Wood Carving, and Weaving (All four: 13.2" x 11.38"). The drawing, Wood Carving, displays the geometricized contours and 'rays' which typify the late 'Modernist' phase of Art Deco, although the content harkens to strong Polish tradition and an earlier 'Arts and Crafts' theme. Stryjenska's series, "Slavic Sorcery," clearly demonstrates that traditional folkloric motifs and design assimilated well into the Art Deco spirit. "Slavic Sorcery" consists of six panels: Wedding Customs, Smigus [Dyngus], Harvest Festival, Polish Mummers and Carolers, St. John's Eve [The longest day of the year], and Wreaths. Smigus, pictured here, is an Easter Monday custom in which men douse their romantic interests, actual or prospective, with water -- a pagan survival later sanctioned by Christian custom. Perhaps, of all nations, the Slavs maintained the gestures of nature worship, pagan and pantheistic, with the greatest tenacity. At any rate, it is an again timely work, as well as an excellent cautionary that common stereotypes of Deco do not reflect the realities of the genre as it was conceived.

In "Art Deco -- Poland" there are numerous pieces of wood carving and ceramics which certainly deserve the art lover's attention. The Bas Relief, consisting of six carved wooden panels and entitled "Work and Rest" (25.38x42.13 in.) is an impressive example of Art Deco in an affordable medium. Many experts have noted that 'High' Art Deco drifted rapidly toward luxurious materials and exclusive media, and that the 'Modernist' phase rejected this as elitist. Alastair Duncan noted in Art Deco: "The Modernist argued that the new age required nothing less than excellent design for everyone...," and later stated: "Lambert-Rucki created his sculptural works in a cheap, sometimes curious mix of woods, polychromed terracotta, stucco and mosaic glass." "Work and Rest" confirms high quality within a traditional medium.

Art historians have said that Art Deco had its beginnings at the turn of the last century and was ended by the Second World War. In the bare essentials, that is fairly accurate. But it was a surprisingly vigorous and robust phenomenon. "Art Deco -- Poland" documents the most enduring, and saddest, testament to that thesis -- the career of Maria Werten.

Maria Werten conducted a school in the Zakopane Mountains of Poland. Werten herself was unquestionably an artist of considerable talent. What is more, she conveyed her inspirations to a number of students who successfully exhibited at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Their work, unnamed and unrecorded, is also now on display at the Polish Museum of America as "School of Maria Werten." Werten died, in exile... alone. The collection is late Art Deco -- a product of its time -- from just before World War II. The swan song of an era. And it is very good.

That, in itself, makes this an exhibition worth seeing. But fairness mandates some closing notes, not of the least, but of the last. "Art Deco -- Poland" is an exhibition not to be missed, or, if missed, to be followed up by serious lovers of Art Deco. The items on displays are, after all, permanent acquisitions of the museum. Fairness requires that one call attention to the high quality wood cuts in the exhibition. And then the question remains -- why is "Art Deco -- Poland" so significant?

Firstly -- the woodcuts. This medium has a rich tradition and accomplishment in Poland. And Art Deco exerted a strong influence since, as in many countries, it was seen as a national expression and therefore often received official as well as commercial patronage. Among the woodcuts exhibited on the left display area are two Flights From Egypt. In his Flight to Egypt (9.63x11 in.), Edmund Bartlomiejczyk (1885-1950) uses a more detailed, expressionistic style. Stanislaw Ostoja-Chrostowski (1897-1947), in his adjacent Flight to Egypt (7.25x6.88 in.1930.), displays a direct, harmonious stylization and serene balance of composition which recalls the work of sculptor, typographer and book illustrator, Eric Gill, of England.

Maria Obreska-Stieber's Color Woodcut, Madonna and Child (11.38x9 in.1933.), is much closer to late, Cubist Art Deco expression. Were it not for the very traditional, religious content, it would place well with Edward Bawden, McKnight Kauffer or the Conde Nast circle of the 20s and 30s. Stefan Mrozewski (1894-1972) in Saint John's Church In Poznan (11x11.75 in. 1934.) offers contrast, being a well-executed woodcut but closer to the graphic mainstream of the time.

Wladyslaw Skoczylas (1883-1934) is well represented and his two-color woodcut (9"x 12.75 in.) also displays the synthesis of folk art with the moderne Art Deco spirit. Zofia Stryjenska painted in gouache, tempera and watercolor, focusing on print illustration, theater costume, textile designs, and panneaux decoratifs. While Skoczylas also ranged in media and application, his greatest mastery was with the woodcut, and the exhibition's displays again examine the interplay of Art Decoratif with folk and fine art. This section of the exhibition reveals how much Art Deco drew from national traditions and in turn reinterpreted them in a cosmopolitan style. It had done so even in the two decades before Leon Bakst and the Ballets Russes so excited the decorators and designers. There is much here which parallels or anticipates now pervasive expression -- the familiar contributions of such as de Lempicka, Edward McKnight Kauffer, Georges Lepape, George Barbier, Paul Iribe, Eric Ravilious, Marie Laurencin, Paul Nash... so many.

Why is "Art Deco -- Poland" significant? This showing was conceived by Jan Lorys of the PMA, who knows the collections; described and displayed by Krystyna Nowakowska of the Copper Museum, Legnica, Poland; and guest curated by Timothy DeWine of Merrill Chase Galleries. Krystyna Nowakowska, in particular, has specialized in Art Deco and researched the material. "Art Deco -- Poland" is a history, a definition and a delight of Art Deco.

Alastair Duncan saw Art Deco as "the distinctive decorative arts style which evolved in Europe immediately prior to the First World War, and which remained in fashion in some countries... until the late 1930s." (Art Deco: 1988). "Art Deco -- Poland" covers the ground. It offers a variety, from the witty and colorful 'High' Art Deco akin to the Parisian, through a folkloric and national expression, to the late "Modernist" Art Deco manner so widely admired in the U.S.. Moreover, "Art Deco -- Poland" intelligently sections the lyricist and the geometricizing tendencies: one clearly discerns the affinities of some artists with concurrent fine art experiments -- Classicism, Fauvism, early Cubism.... Beyond this -- the crossing-over between fine and decorative art -- it clearly underscores the dialogue between decorative and folk art, "class art" (akin to the subsequent Modernist 'art for everyday function') and the cosmopolitan nature of Art Deco itself, which perhaps was the last art to possess 'national' styles,' and which, with so many emigres and influences, internationalized them.

Duncan also pointed out that "First, most Art Deco artists... were not themselves innovative, but rather drew on themes by other Modernist artists in the early years of the century," and adds: "Second, their works on paper were decorative..." "Art Deco -- Poland" underscores that Art Deco was shaped and guided by intent -- application -- rather than critics' manifestos or art experiment. Strict pigeon-holes fail. Apart from the Post-WWI desire for celebration and luxury, Art Deco's varied expression and modes gained a unity from the very demands of decoration, the intrinsic nature of sumptuous materials and media, and the restless, increased mobility between cultures. That is certainly given in "Art Deco -- Poland." Stryjenska's format in "Slavic Sorcery," for example, whether or not inspired by medieval altar predeles or icons of Saints' lives, adapts well to Art Deco illustrations and grating designs, and yet has a distinct Art Decoratif expression. And the brightly colored, geometric contours of Maria Werten's Zakopane mountain school fit well in the Polish counterparts to Vogue or the Ballets Russe: both ancient tradition, and moderne Art Decoratif -- Art Deco.

Art historian E.H. Gombrich, once praised Gauguin for daring "to resolve the irreconcilable conflict between design and representation that was such an increasingly disturbing element in... masters of Art Nouveau, like Gustav Klimt." Gauguin had gone to Tahitian native art. Many Polish artists went to their peasants and returned with Art Deco. And this further makes "Art Deco -- Poland" well worth a visit.

The items in "Art Deco -- Poland" are from the permanent collections of the Polish Museum of America, and are accessible to serious study. If there are any regrets, it is that such a showing deserves funding for a full, illustrated catalogue, particularly since Krystyna Nowakowska, who researched, described and captioned the show is expert in an art she loves. The museum gift shop does offer a full-color reproduction of the exhibition poster (as well several excellent contemporary Polish posters), and a reproduction of the Irena Lorentowicz oil painting is also available. "Art Deco -- Poland" will run at the Polish Museum of America, 984 North Milwaukee, Chicago (in the new West Gate art district), until March 5, 2000.

GO TO PART I

--G. Jurek Polanski

Jurek Polanski has previously written and art edited for Strong Coffee in Chicago. He's also well known and respected among the Chicago museums and galleries. Jurek is currently a Visual Arts Correspondent for ArtScope.net.