Życie dłutem wyżłobione: twórczość Krystyny Wróblewskiej (1904-1994)

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Tapyba; Grafika; Iliustracijos. Keywords: Painting; Graphic art; Illustrations.

ENKrystyna Wróblewska was born on March 4, 1904, in Warsaw and here she embarked on her artistic career. The first studies she began at the school of Feliks Słupski in Warsaw, then in 1921 at the private painting school of Konrad Krzyżanowski. At seventeen she married Bronislaw Wróblewski (1889-1941), a lawyer, expert on criminal law, professor and dean at the Stefan Batory University in Vilna [Polish - Wilno, Lithuanian - Vilnius], In 1921 she settled with her husband in Vilna. Here she gave birth to their two sons -Jerzy (1926-1990) and Andrzej (1927-1957). In 1931 Wróblewska began her studies at the Fine Arts Faculty of the Stefan Batory University, in the ateliers of Professors Ludomir Slendziński and Jerzy Hoppen. After the end of the World War II she moved to Cracow, where she stayed till her death in 1994. She continued her artistic creativity, combining it with social and pedagogical activities. For many years she was professor of the Faculty of Architecture on the Cracow University of Technology, where she learned to draw and organised a student plastic group „Malarch”. One of the most important initiatives she undertook once she settled in Cracow was participation in forming in 1947 a Group of Nine Graphic Artists which she chaired till its self-dissolution in I960. The Group included also: Bogna Krasnodębska-Gardowska, Stefania Dretler-Flin, Helena Krażowska-Knotowa, Leon Kosmulski, Jerzy Bandura, Mieczysław Wejman, Stanisław Töpfer i Konrad Srzednicki (from 1952).Wróblewska actively popularised the arts: at the Committee of Urban Planning and Architecture ofthe Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow she established and led a team of “Plastic Arts in Architecture”; she was active in the Association of Polish Plastic Artists, where in the Graphic Art Section she organised and run for many years the collection of graphics; she also contributed to the establishment of permanent competition for The Best Graphic ofthe Month. Wróblewska was an active and creative artist for almost seventy years, thus her artistic achievements include a variety of themes. This should be remembered when analysing her artistic creativity as a whole. Wróblewska rubbed against various artistic trends such as: classicising trends of the Vilna School, social realism, expressionism, and even abstraction. Yet, the characteristic style of hers was still recognisable, which proved not only her wide array of abilities but mainly her great artistic individuality. However, it should not be forgotten while analysing a long and abounding creativity of Krystyna Wróblewska who her whole life devoted mainly to graphic art, that she was also a gifted painter. Her painting talent manifested it self in a few, but technically perfect works preserved in private collections. This aspect of her artistic activity stayed in the background and was neither presented (apart from a few exhibitions) nor analysed, probably due to limited access to her paintings and lack of written sources on the subject. Artistic achievements of Wróblewska include also numerous bookplates she produced continuously from 1939. This part of her artistic activity provides sufficient material for a separate study.The creativity of this outstanding artist was associated mainly with wood engraving and linocut - with these techniques she produced several hundred graphics, including some important cycles offering an opportunity to more thoroughly explore the selected issues. The works of Krystyna Wróblewska were presented at twenty five individual exhibitions, eighty collective exhibitions in Poland and at fifty seven abroad (e. g. Bulgaria, Venezuela, Yugoslavia, Denmark, Portugal, Holland, India, England, Switzerland, France, Italy, Hungary, West Germany, Czechoslovakia). Rich and long artistic career of Wróblewska was not limited to the one, specific artistic style, because she developed her own individual style and created her own intimate artistic world. In the 1940s and 1950s she determined her artistic stance, espousing realism and technical reliability. To this attitude she stayed faithful till the end, just like to wood engraving. This technique, based on classic sources and strict technical rigour did not hamper her from developing her personal artistic vision and formulating her own way ofartistic expression derived from deep human understanding and experiencing of the world. Although to her works Wróblewska did not introduce new iconography, the language of her art is universal and speaks clearly to modern man, since all of her graphics is inseparable from life, based on human experiences and observation of the world. Her works convey a specific atmosphere, giving the impression of homogeneous and consequently realised vision of the world. The vision was always tinted with subtle poetry, curiosity of psychologist and moralist judgement. Her creativity was undergoing an internal motion. [...]. [From the publication]