During the interwar period, Zofia Stryjeńska's art appealed to the tastes of both the intelligentsia (she was admired by Antoni Słonimski and Leon Chwistek) and the general public. The fact that she was admired by all could also be explained by her versatility. Painting was just one of the many forms of activity she undertook: Stryjeńska also designed tapestries and decorated the cruise ships Batory and Piłsudski, Fukier's winery and Wedel's sweetshop in Warsaw. She designed decorative patterns for the porcelain factory in Ćmielów, posters, postcards, adverts, and toys. Thanks to all this, she was well known not only to sophisticated art aficionados but also the mass audience thanks to, for instance, the chocolate packaging decorated with her images of Slavic deities. She was also one of the most esteemed and honoured artists of the interwar period. She realised many prestigious commissions and sold her works for huge amounts of money, exhibiting them in Poland and abroad.
However, ultimately, she fell victim to her art style, which, at the beginning of the 1920s was undoubtedly fresh but half-way through the next decade it had already become cliché and was over-repeated by others – and most importantly by Stryjeńska herself – to please the mass audience. Recently, feminist theory shed new light on her art by leaving aside its artistic and formal qualities. From this point of view, her success is seen as a result of the country's political situation right after reclaiming independence, when a new style was needed to express ideological content. In this era, the authorities in their traditional form were not yet validated. This helped with manifesting changes in the old order – recognition of women's rights, including the right to vote in 1918, is one example. The figure of the ‘Polish Mother’, fixed into the mass conscience during the Partitions of Poland, was replaced by the figure of a modern, independent woman. Zofia Stryjeńska realised it not only in her art, but also in her private and professional life.
Written by Magdalena Wróblewska, translated by Patryk Grabowski, Aug 2018
Sources:
Joanna Sosnowska, Poza kanonem. Sztuka polskich artystek 1880- 1939, Warsaw 2003.
Katarzyna Nowakowska-Sito, Zofia Stryjeńska: 1891 Kraków - 1976 Genewa, National Museum in Warsaw, Warsaw 2009.
Maria Grońska, Zofia Stryjeńska, Wrocław 1991 .