As part of the series Block #3 | Craft we invite you to the last lecture in the series of events accompanying the exhibition Władysław Wincze. Interiors. The lecture will be conducted by Iwona Kałuża.
To quote Władysław Wincze, “the years 1954-1956 are a period of significant construction investments in Wrocław. At that time, work began on the reconstruction of the destroyed Old Town district, and above all the Old Market Square. It was also at that time that large construction projects were being built in the city centre, mainly along Świdnicka Street and Tadeusza Kościuszki Square. In a large downtown housing estate (in the Kościuszko Housing Quarter) a number of new service and retail outlets have found their place”. (1) The spaces, which were largely designed by a new generation of artists, have become post-war visual elements of the city.
Jerzy Tarnawski’s project, RTV store at Młodzieżowy Square, 1959, wall painting: Arkadiusz Włodarczyk, from Jerzy Tarnawski’s private archive
They were happy to go to Stylowa cafe or Monopol Hotel. They read newspapers in the International Press and Books Club, met in the Bachus Winery or discussed in the Journalist Club. In many projects you can see forms taken from nature - asymmetrical shapes and vivid colours, which as a result of biological inspirations became a source of new forms of furniture, ceramics, as well as numerous fabric patterns. In addition, Wrocław was still looking for inspirations from art of the interwar period. These tendencies were intensified by the arrival of Władysław Wincze - an educator who owes much of his skills to the Warsaw school - the cradle of the “Ład” Artists Cooperative. The two trends collided, combining modernity with tradition, as can be observed in the Wrocław public interiors projects. The lecture will present selected realisations of restaurants, cafés and shops, which, designed by the teacher himself and his first graduates, have become permanently inscribed in the landscape of post-war Wrocław.
- W. Wincze, Wrocławskie wnętrza, [in:] Architektura, no. 9, published by Arkady, Warsaw 1959.
Iwona Kałuża - art historian, post-war design researcher, curator. She graduated in art history from the Silesian University and the University of Wrocław. She completed postgraduate postgraduate studies at the Heritage Academy in Cracow. The author of numerous texts on industrial design, with particular emphasis on the role of the visual artist in industry. She works at BWA Wrocław Contemporary Art Galleries.