Odessa-Warsaw-Wrocław. Artistic, design, and pedagogical activity of Władysław Wincze (1905-1992)

Abstract

Władysław Wincze was born in 1905 in Odessa to a family of Polish origin. It was there that he took his first steps in the fi eld of visual arts. In 1922, he moved to Poland, where he completed his studies in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Gradually, however, his main area of interest became applied art, especially furniture design and interior architecture. His individual design style was inspired by the models of the “Ład” Artists’ Cooperative. It was characterized by simplicity of form, functionality, and references to folk art. After 1945, Wincze initially remained associated with the “Ład” Artists’ Cooperative. In the new postwar realities, his creative work focused on designing inexpensive, multifunctional wooden furniture adapted to small apartments. In 1948, he also began working as a pedagogue at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Wrocław. He was the founder as well as a long-time professor and dean of the Faculty of Interior Architecture. At the same time, he taught furniture design classes. He was a great authority for students and colleagues as an artist-designer and lecturer. For many years, he also made wider social circles aware of the basics of aesthetics in design in the press, writing about the importance of the beauty of the material, structure, and purposefulness for the quality of the design and the industrial product based on it. His artistic and design activity in the fields of furniture making, interior architecture, and architectural painting continued successfully until the late 1970s. It overcame both the doctrinal limitations of socialist realism and the problems with access to appropriate materials resulting from the problems typical of a socialist economy. It was an attempt to establish an equal dialogue with contemporary trends in world design. His projects were widely implemented in Wrocław, Lower Silesia, and other regions of Poland. His furniture, during the communist period, stood out for its durability and multifunctionality. Dozens of recognized Polish interior architects and designers were trained in his studio. He died in 1992.