Wczesny okres twórczości Hanny Żuławskiej. Warszawa–Paryż–Gdynia

Abstrakt

Hanna Żuławska (1908–1988) was one of the most prominent artists associated with the Tri-City, and dealing with many fields of art: easel and polychrome painting, architectural mosaic, sgraffito, ceramics and small architecture. Her husband was a painter known on the coast: Jacek Żuławski. She is known primarily for her mature work in the 1950s and 60s; it was then that she showed true individuality. From postwar times, Żuławska was also teacher and professor at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Gdańsk and the manager of the Kadyny Ceramics Works. Little, if anything, is known of Hanna Żuławska’s work in the interwar period.

In 1930–1934, Żuławska studied at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts, among others in the studios of Professors Felicjan Szczęsny Kowarski, Leonard Pękalski and Tadeusz Pruszkowski. It seems that Kowarski’s work in the fields of painting and monumental mosaics had a great influence on Żuławska›s later artistic activity. In the 1930s, Żuławska took part in exhibitions at IPS (Art Propaganda Institute).

At that time, the artist experienced a period of fascination with the works of the members of the Paris Committee and Pierre Bonnard and Paul Cèzanne, which resulted in the pair of the artists, Hanna and Jacek, leaving for Paris on a scholarship in 1935. In Paris, the artist studied in the painting studio of Józef Pankiewicz, painted still lifes, city views and quite standard landscapes; she also visited museums and led a lively social life. In May 1938, the works of Hanna and five other Polish painters were presented at the prestigious Bernheim Jeune gallery in Paris. The exhibition was well received by critics in Poland.

Hanna and her husband returned to Poland and settled in Gdynia in the autumn of 1938, where Żuławska established contacts with the artistic community of the city. In 1938, the artists joined the Gdynia branch of the Trade Union of Polish Artists and Designers, and actively participated in its exhibitions until the outbreak of World War II. In recognition of their contribution to the development of art in Gdynia, the Żuławskis also received state orders for a monumental painting decoration of the barracks’ common room at Redłowo, for the creation of paintings for the Chapel of the Hospital of the Sisters of Mercy at Kaszubski Square, and for the polychrome entitled ‘Apotheosis of Gdynia’ in the building of the Government Commissariat (designs not preserved).

During the Nazi occupation, the Żuławskis were in Warsaw; in November 1944, the artist came to Łańcut near Lublin, where she stayed at an artistic house. In the autumn of 1945, Hanna and Jacek Żuławski together with other residents of the manor house, e.g.: Juliusz Studnicki, Krystyna Łada-Studnicka, Janusz Strzałecki, Józefa and Marian Wnuk, established the State Institute of Fine Arts in Sopot, transformed into the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Gdańsk.