The Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan was founded in 1919. In March 1919, during the First General Congress of Visual Artists and Art Council Delegates in Warsaw, the decision was reached to established a Decorative School. On 11 September architect Kazimierz Ulatowski, an official responsible for vocational schools in Poznan, appointed an organizational committee for the school. The committee included painter Wiktor Gosieniecki, photographer Bronisław Preibisch, sculptor Marcin Rożek, and graphic artist Jan Jerzy Wroniecki. From the start, the school was planned as a crafts school, in the tradition of the German schools of handicrafts (Kunstgewerbeschule).
The official opening took place on 1 November 1919. The school did not have its own building, but used the lecture rooms of the State Construction School at 11 Lakowa Street. The Decorative School was subordinate to the municipal government. Its structure included four faculties: Decorative Painting headed by Gosieniecki, Sculpture headed by Marcin Rożek, Graphic Arts headed by Jan Wroniecki, and Artistic Photography headed by Bronisław Preibisch. Wiktor Gosieniecki was the school's principal.
The first major changes that modified the school's image were introduced by Fryderyk Pautsch. It was 1920. When he was taking over as principal of the School of Decorative Arts, Pautsch - a graduate of the Krakow Academy - already had some teaching experience gained in Wroclaw. He changed the profile of the Poznan school by adding the "pure arts" to its crafts profile. As principal, he also expanded the teaching staff. At the time, the region of Wielkopolska did not have a strong artistic community, so he invited artists from all over Poland to work with him. Before the end of the year, Stanisław Jagmin, a ceramic artist and sculptor from Warsaw, painter and textile designer Władysław Rogulski, and sculptor Jan Wysocki from Silesia all came to Poznan. The curriculum was expanded to include "pure painting". The teacher of this subject was Fryderyk Pautsch himself. Due to a lack of space, furniture making, artistic metalwork and bookbinding had to be abandoned.
The next important year in the school's history was 1921. The Poznan school was nationalized and its name changed to State School of Decorative Arts and Artistic Industry (PSSZiPA). The change of name was followed by innovations in the organizational structure. There were two years of an introductory course followed by three years of specialization. The Faculty of Decorative Painting now included stained-glass window art. The Faculty of Graphic Art was expanded to include bookbinding. Due to the small number of students, the Faculty of Photography was closed down. Meanwhile, a department of teaching was opened. Great credit is due to Pautsch for obtaining new, separate premises for the school, which moved to a former Jesuit college building. Until 1939 "Zdobnicza", as the Poznan school was referred to for short, was housed in a building in Świętosławska Street rented from the parish.
The next stage in the school's development came in 1925. Fryderyk Pautsch left Poznan to take over as head of the Painting Department at the Academy in Krakow.
"Fryderyk Pautsch's departure, when he took with him students such as Taranczewski, Przebindowski, Wacław Krajewski and Zofia Małachowska, ultimately ended the school's contacts with the community of the former BUNT group and spelled the end of its influence." ("Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Sztuk Plastycznych w Poznaniu" / "State Higher School of Visual Arts in Poznan", Wydawnictwo Poznanskie 1971, p. 12)
The new principal of the Poznan school was Karol Zyndram Maszkowski, a student of Jan Matejko. His broad interest in applied art gave the PSSZiPA a new direction of development. Maszkowski restored the profile that the school's founders had defined. Stronger emphasis was placed on the development of applied art than on the "pure" arts. Credit is also due to Maszkowski for the Poznan school's seeking of motifs and decorative elements in folk art. He was also a valued teacher. The range of classes was expanded to include such subjects as materials technology, descriptive geometry, perspective, and artistic anatomy. Mandatory classes also included summer training. For example, ceramics students went to train at Stanisław Manczak's pottery factory in Chodzież. Maszkowski's greatest achievement was opening the Faculty of Interior Design.
"... the work is primarily aimed at ensuring that students become people useful to society, that apart from their individual creative output in all areas of applied art, they will also be outstanding executors of the works of uniquely great individuals that our decorative art will yield sooner or later. Hence, the school prepares students who, once they start their adult life and base their creativity on the tradition of our own, national art, will be able to develop new things from it, used for our needs, but always strongly linked to our tradition and being an expression of our culture". ("Kurier Poznanski", 1927, No. 266, p. 8)
The high standard of Poznan's "Zdobnicza" school is proved by the successes of students who took part in national and foreign exhibitions. The most important exhibitions at which students' works were shown include the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris in 1925, an exhibition at the Museum of Art and Industry in Prague in 1931, and the Art and Technology exhibition in Paris in 1937.
In 1936 Maszkowski hired Bazyli Wojtowicz, a young sculptor from Warsaw. Maszkowski died two years later, and was succeeded by Lucjan Kintopf, a weaver and a member of the Warsaw group ŁAD. As principal, Lucjan Kintopf had the ambition to create a rationally constituted unit. He had organizational skills, keen evaluation skills, and the determination to carry out what he planned. As an artist, he wanted the school to have an applied, practical character, but of the highest possible standard.
To Kintopf, the Poznan school owes its new statute and the change of its name to the State Institute of Art. Art history was added to the curriculum for the first time, taught by Zdzisław Kępiński. Textiles, clothing composition, and the home interiors studio headed by the Institute's director himself, developed intensively. The outbreak of World War II interrupted the Poznan school's development.
In the inter-war years, Poznan's "Zdobnicza" school was the country's most important institution educating artists and designers for industry. It also integrated Poznan's small artistic community. Members of the artistic group ŚWIT founded in late 1920/early 1921 were its graduates. This group included Adam Ballenstedt, Bronisław Bartel, Erwin Elster, Wiktor Gosieniecki, Stanisław Jagmin, Mieczysław Lubelski, Fryderyk Pautsch, Władysław Rogulski, Stefan Sonnenwend, Jan Jerzy Wroniecki.
"Almost every year, to end the school year a review of the students' achievements was held in the School's building, and the 15th anniversary of the Poznan school's inception was celebrated with a jubilee exhibition at the Lwowski Palace within the Poznan Fair compound. Students, the greatest talents that is, achieved substantial workshop skills and were comprehensively educated artist-craftsmen and artists. The emphasis on technical subjects and 'art technology' did not prevent the more talented students from acquiring artistic polish and being successful in so-called pure art". (Jarosław Mulczyński, p. 175)
The school's post-war years are linked to the person of Jan Wroniecki. In 1944 the authorities gave him permission to establish a higher school of art in Poznan. Before the war had ended, 43 people had already shown their willingness to study at an art school. As many as 116 people applied for the first year of studies in 1945/46. The first classes were held at Wroniecki's flat in Bieganskiego Street. On 30 April 1946 Wroniecki resigned from office in favour of Wacław Taranczewski, who taught painting. Classes were held on small premises in the city centre, at Wolnosci Square.
The school's name was changed to State Higher School of Visual Arts. The faculty included Halina Kintopf, who was responsible for the Department of Interior Design and Furniture, Bazyli Wojtowicz teaching sculpture, Jan Wroniecki teaching graphic arts, Wacław Taranczewski teaching painting, while the General Department was headed by Stanisław Szczepański, a former member of the KAPIŚCI group.
Lucjan Kintopf had a significant impact on the school's development. When he returned to Poznan after the war, the school was reorganized. A separate Faculty of Painting and Graphic Arts was set up, and a Faculty of Interior Art and Sculpture. The dominating tendency, as it was in Gdansk, Warsaw and Krakow, was colourism. The faculty included Bronisław Bartel, Erwin Elster, Karol Mondral, Bazyli Wojtowicz, Wiktor Gosieniecki, Halina and Lucjan Kintopf, and Rudolf Krzywiec.
The end of the 1940's brought huge changes. The "Mangelowa reform" of 1950 separated the "pure arts" from applied art. Each school was assigned one specialization that it was obliged to develop. Hence, graphic arts, painting and weaving were abolished in Poznan. Furniture making became the main discipline, expanded to include interior design. These changes led to the school's slow downfall. The number of applying students began to drop. The teachers whose classes were abolished moved to other cities. This was when Rudolf Krzywiec and Lucjan Kintopf left the Poznan school. In 1947 Wacław Taranczewski moved to Warsaw. His position was taken over by Stanisław Teisseyre, a painter from Lwow [today: Lviv]. A new painting composition studio was created a year later, headed by Zdzisław Kępiński.
The school became a single-faculty institution. A few teachers remained at the Interior Design department. Jan Cieśliński was appointed dean. Drawing was the responsibility of Marian Szmańda and {C}Hipolit Polański, painting composition was taught by Eustachy Wasilkowski, the sculpture studio was run by Bazyli Wojtowicz and Alfred Wiśniewski (in Sopot from 1954). In 1951 Cieśliński brought about the formation of two units: Occasional Architecture and House Fittings. To work with him, he invited Prof. Jerzy Staniszkis in 1950 and Prof. Jan Bogusławski from Warsaw.
After the political thaw of the second half of the 1950's, things began to improve. In the 1957/58 academic year, classes in two courses of study were launched: drawing and painting, and sculpture. In 1958 painter Piotr Potworowski took over as head of the painting studio. At this time, Cieslinski obtained the building of the pre-war provincial administration for the school.
Work on a general reform began in the 1960's. New artists were invited to work at the school in the hope of improving its standard. The faculty now included Magdalena Abakanowicz, Olgierd Truszyński, Magdalena Więcek-Wnukowa, Zbigniew Makowski, Waldemar Świerzy and Jan Berdyszak. Poznan's artists set themselves the goal of creating a school open to different forms of artistic expression.
"Galeria Akumulatory-2 was one of the first original galleries in the 1970's, playing an important role in the gallery movement that emerged at the time, though it did not share the typical 1970's galleries' fascination with new forms of activity. It also remained sceptical towards many artistic trends appearing at the original galleries of the previous decade". ("PWSSP w Poznaniu" / "PWSSP in Poznan", 1979-1989, p. 24)
In 1981-87 Jarosław Kozłowski became the school's rector. He made new changes in the way the school was organized. Among the major tasks he undertook was assuming supervision over several galleries in 1983. These became "school galleries". Back in the 1970's, Galeria Akumulatory-2 was created at his initiative, planned as a venue for exchanging artistic ideas.
"In the 1980's the art school took over a few Poznan galleries that had originated from the tradition of the independent gallery movement of the previous decade. This created a new situation both for the school, which gained the possibility of immediately testing its programme concepts in artistic practice, and for the galleries, which became involved in the process of artistic education of young people". (references)
Post-war teachers included Jacek Waltoś, Jan Berdyszak, Antoni Zydroń, Jarosław Kozłowski, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Alicja Kępinska (art history), Jerzy Ludwiński, Piotr Kurka.
In 1996 the Poznan school obtained the status of an Academy of Fine Arts. Today it comprises six faculties: Graphic Arts, Sculpture and Performing Arts, Architecture and Design, Artistic Education, Multimedia Communication, and Painting.
Compiled from:
Zdzislaw Kepinski, "Panstwowa Wyzsza Szkola Sztuk Plastycznych" / "State Higher School of Visual Arts"; "Panstwowa Wyzsza Szkola Sztuk Plastycznych w Poznaniu, 1979-1989" / "State Higher School of Visual Arts in Poznan, 1979-1989";
the school's website
Sabina Steckiewicz December 2006 | |
Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Poznaniu
Al. Marcinkowskiego 29
60-967 Poznań
Region: wielkopolskie
Phone: (+48 61) 855 25 21
Fax: (+48 61) 852 80 91
WWW: www.asp.poznan.pl