Wladyslaw Skoczylas, KRZEMIENIEC, ca. 1927

35.5 x 49.7cm - watercolor, pencil, cardboard

Signed p.d.: W. Skoczylas Krzemieniec
On the reverse p.d. sticker (print): Artystyczna introligatornia - ramiarnia | TADEUSZ ZARĘBSKI | Warsaw, Marszałkowska 119 m. 41 Tel. 5 43 89 | Studio of frames, passe-partout | gluing plans and maps.

The dominant feature of the composition is a storied house with a blue facade and arcades, contrasted with the warm, earthy tones of the square. In the foreground, the artist has captured horses and carts resting at the trough with graphic discipline. The free, clean color stain and visible pencil underdrawing give the scene a lightness, while the rhythmization of the forms reflects the spirit of the aesthetics of the "Rhythm" grouping. The work perfectly illustrates how Skoczylas - as a leading representative of "Rhythm" - was able to transfer the modern pursuit of synthesis to the watercolor technique. Krzemieniec is not just a sentimental record of a borderland town, but a thoughtful manifestation of a modern national style, combining a local motif with a universal order of form.

The collection of the Museum of Art in Lodz holds a watercolor by Wladyslaw Skoczylas, dated circa 1926-1930, which probably depicts the same blue building. The exact chronological framework of the artist's stays in Krzemieniec has not yet been established. An important clue for dating the Krzemieniec motifs is the year 1927 - it was then that other views from this locality were first exhibited under unambiguous titles, which makes it possible to consider this period as crucial for the creation of the entire group of landscapes from Krzemieniec.


Compare with:: - M. Sitkowska, Władysław Skoczylas, Warsaw 2015, p. 298, cat. no. VI. 160.

Wladyslaw Skoczylas - painter, printmaker, sculptor, educator and art critic. From 1901 he studied sculpture at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna, then sculpture and painting at the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts under Axentowicz and Wyczółkowski (1904-1906), sculpture under E.-A.Bourdell in Paris (1910) and printmaking in Leipzig (1913). Since 1908 he lived in Zakopane for several years, where he taught drawing at the School of Wood Industry, co-founded the Podhale Art Society and the "Kilim" weaving workshop. Since 1918, he lived permanently in Warsaw - he taught at the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic and led the chair of Artistic Graphics at the School and later the Academy of Fine Arts. He exhibited a lot, including with the Formists group. He was a co-founder of the "Rhythm" groups and the "Rhythm" Society of Graphic Artists and participated in the exhibitions of these groups. He was an outstanding graphic artist, creator of the Polish school of woodcut. He painted relatively little, creating landscapes, portraits and genre scenes.