The Importance of Polish Design in the Context of Global Design History

rm58.jpg, default, 'RM58' armchairs, design: Roman Modzelewski, photo: Vzór Ltd./https://www.vzor.com, The Importance of Polish Design in the Context of Global Design History

#design

The history of Polish design might be perceived as quite short in comparison to some other countries, in particular those dominating the history of the design field such as Great Britain. However, the period from the late 19th century (a time when the Polish national style was born) until the present day is marked by a plethora of changes, innovations and projects that have a tremendous impact on and relevance to wider, global design history.

Several overarching themes showcase the importance of Polish design history on an international scale, ones which enable the discovery of similarities between the various geographical locations. Parallels can be drawn between Polish and international design movements, artistic groups or underlying design goals. For example, the desire for the creation of a national style at the end of the 19th century was a feeling felt across the world. Furthermore, it is not just design ideals that are the focus in the field of design history but also the manufacturing of products and materials. Looking at resemblances can show that what happened in Poland was not an isolated series of events but rather a collective phenomenon felt across the globe, which impacted and shaped the state of global design history. Let’s explore these ideas in more detail!

Placing Polish design within global design

The Young Poland movement & the Arts & Crafts movement

Synergies between Polish design history and global design history appear ever since the beginning of the quest by Stanisław Witkiewicz (artist and founder of the Zakopane Style) to find the nation’s national style. Recent research undertaken by Polish and English scholars uncovered that there are many parallels between the Young Poland movement and the British Arts and Crafts movement. Emerging in the 1890s, not long after the beginning of its British counterpart, the Young Poland movement was started in response to Poland’s lack of a national style and identity. It embraced the revival of long-established crafts, mostly inspired by peasant traditions, by history and by nature. The creative work of both Polish and British artists reflected the cultural, social, political and perhaps economic tensions and ideas in their homelands. By going back to the roots of craft practices and the vernacular traditions, artists hoped to create a distinct national identity celebrating handmade objects and all things untouched by industrialisation. Despite the somewhat differing goals of the two movements, influential artists and teachers believed folk arts, crafts and traditions would solve their country’s problems.

Stanisław Wyspiański, 'Bratki', fragment of polychrome from the Franciscan church in Kraków, 1895, photo: public domain. Pimpernel Wallpaper by Morris & Co, photo: Jane Clayton & Company | Over 100 Designer Interiors Brands

Blok, Praesens & Bauhaus

The interwar period was a time of innovation and the formation of avant-garde collectives all around the world, including in Poland. Blok was founded in 1924, and Praesens, two years later. Both collectives followed some of the principles presented by such modern groups and schools as the German Bauhaus. Members of the avant-garde groups were in favour of the motto created by Le Corbusier that ‘a house is a machine for living in’ and believed that form follows function and that there is no need for an excess of useless ornamentation within designs. These ideals opposed the teachings of John Ruskin and William Morris, the leading minds of the British Arts and Crafts movement whose work inspired the output of other Polish interwar collectives such as the Warsztaty Krakowskie (Kraków Workshops). Blok and Praesens were against those more traditional designs produced by them, for example, for the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. However, their formation was a huge influence on the state of Polish design and showcased the newly independent country’s interpretation of modernity.

In search of modernity

During the post-war period, there was a race towards ‘modernity’ undertaken by America and the USSR. It was not only an arms race; it also included other aspects of life, such as the furnishings of a home. It was then that Roman Modzelewski, a renowned Polish artist, designer and teacher created his ingenious polyester-glass laminate armchair. Showcasing one of the first uses of this innovative material in Poland, the RM58 armchair received widespread recognition only in the early 21st century. Its importance in the world of design history was first highlighted at the 2008–2009 Cold War Modern: Design 1945–1970 exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. There it was displayed alongside more well-known designs such as the Garden Egg Chair by Peter Ghyczy from 1969. In the book that accompanied the exhibition, Modzelewski’s armchair was also included. His use of the new material and manufacturing technique is placed in parallel with the work of the renowned American duo Charles and Ray Eames, specifically their DAW armchair from 1950. The two armchairs present designs created on both sides of the Iron Curtain under widely different social, political and economic conditions, but what unites them is the choice of material, groundbreaking at the time.

Bogusława & Czesław Kowalski vs Charles & Ray Eames

Czesław Kowalski and Bogusława Michałowska-Kowalska, photo: Kowalskis' Furniture exhibition's press materials

Another renowned Polish design that can be placed ‘in conversation’ with more widely known designs is Kowalski’s wall unit (meblościanka). It is one of the most iconic post-war Polish furniture designs. In 1961, Bogusława Kowalska and Czesław Kowalski, the designers, took part in a competition, Furniture for a Small Flat, initiated by Zjednoczenie Przemysłu Meblarskiego (the Furniture Industry Union) in Poznań. The task was to design a multi-functional, affordable furniture piece. The Polish couple received first prize with their innovative wall unit. Around the same time, across the ocean, Charles and Ray Eames were working on their Eames Contract Storage for Herman Miller. Despite their design being aimed at student accommodations, the overarching goal of the project was the same as that of the Kowalski duo – to design space-saving furniture for small living spaces.

Polish design in international literature

The work of Oskar Zięta, a world-famous Polish contemporary designer, is included in the Atlas of Furniture Design published by Vitra Design Museum. Zięta is the brain behind the innovative FiDU (Freie Innendruck Umformung, free internal pressure forming) method, whereby internal pressure is used to deform flat metal shapes into intriguing and unique three-dimensional objects. The Plopp stool was his first creation using this ground-breaking manufacturing method, for which he received the prestigious Red Dot Award in 2008. His designs have been showcased all around the world, and some are in the permanent collection of Vitra Design Museum in Germany. This impressive museum owns an extensive furniture collection, and their 2019 book is the result of 20 years of research. Zięta’s Plopp stool and the 2009 Chippensteel chair made using the same manufacturing technique are included in the comprehensive publication, showcasing Polish design to a varied international audience.

Oskar Zięta, stool, 'Plopp Stool', photo: Zieta Studio

In the second volume of the 2015 publication World History of Design, Victor Margolin, a renowned design historian and researcher, explores the history of Polish design. Placed within the ‘Central and Eastern Europe’ chapter, Poland is selected as one of three countries from this region. The author discusses several aspects of Polish design from 1900 to 1939, such as the avant-garde collectives or graphic design.

The inclusion of Polish design and its history in publications by renowned institutions and historians showcases its recognition as an influential and important branch of design history.

The creation of national style & identity

Polish national style was born out of the need to create an identity that differed from those of the ruling countries of Russia, Prussia and Austria. Folk arts and crafts have been the main source of inspiration from the very beginning of the creation of Poland’s national style, as they were seen as something untouched by modernisation and industrialisation and thus portraying true Polish values. But it was not just Polish artistic minds that were drawn to their country’s folk traditions in the hopes that they would maintain or create their national identity. As an example, two places in widely differing geographical locations showcase that Poland’s desire for its own creative identity was not an isolated phenomenon but rather a struggle and a challenge faced by several countries at the turn of the 20th century.

Israel & the Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design

In the early 1900s, Israel was also looking for its own national style. In 1906, the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design was founded in Jerusalem for Jewish immigrants. The school aimed to aid in the creation of a national style that took influences from Jewish, Oriental and European traditions, simultaneously celebrating and acknowledging the plethora of cultures in this particular geographical location. The academy is believed to be the oldest and most prestigious art school in Israel, and the artistic work produced there in the early 20th century acted as a starting point for Israeli visual arts developed in later decades. Bezalel offered several workshops, including sculpture, painting, silver, leather, wood, brass and fabric. These can be compared to the work of the Kraków Workshops or later that of the Spółdzielnia Artystów Ład (Ład Artists’ Cooperative) in Poland, where several specialised workshops aimed to develop the individual areas of art and design in Poland.

Sweden & ‘The Significance of Swedish Poverty’

Kitchen design by Gunnar Asplund, Home Exhibition, Stockholm, 1917, photo: Public domain

During a similar time, Sweden also faced a problem with the lack of a clear national identity. However, in the case of the Nordic country, this was due to rapid industrialisation. The idea of ‘Swedish poverty’ or the peasant culture played a key role in the discovery of the country’s style. In 1838, Carl Jonas Love Almqvist, a renowned Swedish author, published a ground-breaking essay titled ‘The Significance of Swedish Poverty’. In his opinion, the peasant cultures were a source of national pride. Almqvist presented the image of the peasant as the symbol of the Swedish folk and the heart of the Swedish nation. His teachings were used and developed by reformers of the late 19th century during a time when rapid industrialisation drastically changed the social and cultural state of the country. For example, the work of Gunnar Asplund, a Swedish architect, for the 1917 Home Exhibition in Stockholm was inspired by Almqvist’s essay. In Poland, Stanisław Witkiewicz, Karol Kłosowski and many others travelled to Zakopane to look for vernacular traditions. Artists and designers continue to look to pre-industrial folk arts, crafts and traditions because they are seen as something unchangeable and pure, which many yearn to bring back during times of uncertainty.

Leaders in material & object production

Design history encompasses not just the design of objects but also their manufacture. For decades Poland has played a key role in the production and dissemination of designed objects or the materials used to make them.

Furniture manufacture

Poland is one of the world’s top five furniture exporters and since 2017 the biggest EU furniture exporter. The furniture goes to 170 countries all around the world, the most popular destinations being Germany, Czechia, Great Britain and the USA. The wide geographical spread highlights the importance of Polish furniture manufacturers. Furthermore, it proves that Polish producers create high quality, desirable goods.

IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer, plays a key role in the above statistic. The Swedish home brand has 18 production sites in Poland and is the biggest furniture producer in the country. IKEA factories and products completely revolutionised the previously state-controlled furniture market. However, some IKEA furniture factories were created utilising the infrastructure of the already existing production sites of other socialist furniture cooperatives (that might have no longer been needed), creating a sense of continuity between what once was and what will be.

The story of IKEA in Poland goes back to 1961, when its founder, Ingvar Kamprad, discovered a chair design in Poland that would soon become the popular ÖGLA chair. He immediately made his first order for 500 ÖGLA chairs from the furniture manufacturer in Radomsko. This particular factory is famed for the production of bentwood furniture, therefore perfectly suited to the production needs of this durable design. Since the 1960s, Poland’s role within the IKEA company has grown exponentially, now being responsible for around one fifth of all furniture produced for this retailer. Sources state that Kamprad himself said that ‘IKEA was founded in Poland’ due to the large volume of furniture produced in the country, cementing Poland’s significance within global design history.

Ingvar Kamprad with ÖGLA chair, photo: Ikea press materials

Silver production

Silver is used in a multitude of ways, ranging from jewellery to electrical fittings, and Poland has plenty of it. KGHM, the Polish mining corporation, has the largest silver mine in the world and is the second largest producer of silver globally. The raw material is acquired by a plethora of companies from industries such as banking or by producers of coins and medals. Through the supply of this desirable material, Poland is once more contributing to the creation of designed objects.

Considering these several examples, the importance of Polish design history in the context of global design history is undeniable. While still not hugely discussed during international conferences, in publications and in other forms of information dissemination, the design history of this Central European country is influential in the shaping of the creative sector as we know it today. Whether by uncovering folk traditions to find a national style, representing modern ideals in the interwar period or tackling the small-apartment living struggles of the post-war period, Polish artists and designers always showcased clever solutions to the problems with which they were presented. Their ingenuity, teamwork and skills showed the world what they are capable of even under difficult political, social or economic conditions. In the 21st century, Polish designers are gaining international fame, and the country is leading in the production and distribution of vital materials and products, further cementing its crucial role within wider global design.

Language English

polish design in sweden

design guide

polish design in pieces

interior

polish style