BETWEEN OBJECTS. CORRESPONDENCES, CONFRONTATIONS…

In the 1940s Monika Piwowarska, designer of highly valued artistic fabrics, designed a series of hand puppets. Commissioned by Biuro Nadzoru Estetyki Produkcji [Production Aesthetics Supervision Bureau], they were created as prototypes for serial production, both artisanal and industrial. The aforementioned institution was at the time commissioning and collecting objects and designs that were supposed to be manufactured in the future – toys, metalwork, jewelry, textiles, lace, clothing and other similar products. At first, those who delivered them were predominantly artists with pre-war educations, yet unfamiliar with industrial design. In the 1950s, the first designers with professional backgrounds started to emerge, being employed by the Institute of Industrial Design, the successor of the Production Aesthetics Supervision Bureau.

Monika Piwowarska, hand puppet, 1945–1948, lathed wood, printed textiles, cotton thread

The simple design of the ash wood table, with a black glass top, and often combined with the "Shell" chair by the same author, was produced on a mass scale by the "Ład" Artists’ Cooperative during the 1950s and 60s. As a successful product that properly satisfied users' needs, it ended up in many cafés, waiting rooms and private apartments. Today, being rediscovered, it has regained its popularity.

The "Shell" chair is a piece of furniture typical of the style at the time, with a modern, organic shape, upholstered in bouclé fabric in mustard yellow, a fashionable colour at the time. Features that characterized furniture sixty years ago continue to be attractive to the contemporary consumer.

Hanna Lachert, "Ład" Artists’ Cooperative, "Muszla" [Shell] chair, 1956, ash wood, bent plywood, upholstery

Even though it was executed using the traditional hand-knotting technique, with dense knots and long loops, it is characterized by a modern abstract pattern and interesting colour combinations (colours: lime, black, amaranth). It was made by one of the most highly skilled weaving artists who, in the 1960s, worked with unique decorative textiles, and was winner of many awards at the Lausanne International Tapestry Biennials, among others.

Jolanta Owidzka, "Zielenie" [Greens] carpet, 1961, hand-knotted wool carpet

Agnieszka Czop, Joanna Rusin, "Cars" carpet, 2004, laser-cut wool felt

After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, Faculty of Textiles and Clothing, the designers of the "Cars" carpet started collaborating with the carpet manufacturer Dywilan. They were one of the first to begin designing modern decorative textiles from laser-cut wool felt that could, at the same time, function as interactive children's toys. Within this series are lightly coloured felt carpets (several layers glued together) with cut-outs that can be stacked freely with different, colourful elements, e.g. in the shape of circles, animals or cars, were created.

Two of the most characteristic sets of pre-war china from Ćmielów – "Sphere" and "Flat" – are maintained in the modern art deco style. In the early 1930s, the factory bought the designs from the Paris-based studio of Bogdan Wendorf.

Bogdan Wendorf, "Ćmielów" Porcelain Manufacturer, part of the "Kula" [Sphere] set, 1932–1934, glazed porcelain, gilded

The "Flat" set is distinguished by an intriguing cubist-like pattern in the form of overlapping discs and circles.

Bogdan Wendorf, "Ćmielów" Porcelain Manufacturer, part of the "Płaski" [Flat] set, 1932–1934, glazed porcelain, gilded

This collection of porcelain tableware with diverse decorations was designed by the Ćmielów Design Studio, led by Marek Cecuła, and designed precisely to enable the arrangment of personalised sets.

The items with decorative prints in three colours: grey, black and gold...

... and several pattern variants, among others; cubist inspired, op-art and a distinctive arabesque, can be combined freely within one set using the principle of harmonious eclecticism, based on attractive contrasts.

This armchair prototype by Jan Kurzątkowski, a distinguished Polish designer and professor at the Faculty of Interior Design, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, is part of the experimental furniture family, in which structural elements are made from bent plywood sheets, with the seat woven from elastic thread. Jan Kurzątkowski was a master of bent plywood forms, however, none of his experimental designs saw serial production.

Jan Kurzątkowski, armchair, 1960s, bent plywood, nylon lines

Roman Modzelewski, Vzór, RM56 armchair, 2012, bent plywood, metal frame

Half a century after the design and the prototype were created by the designer Roman Modzelewski, the Vzór company began mass production of the armchair with a bent plywood seat resting on a delicate, abstractly shaped metal frame. The designer himself, in 1956, created two seat models: one made from plywood and another one from, the then highly demanded plastic material, rigid PVC. The rigid PVC model received second prize in the Individual Furniture Pieces category at the II Polish Exhibition of Interior Design in the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw in 1957, but even that did not help him find a manufacturer back then. But now, thanks to Vzór, the armchair has the chance to be manufactured in series, both in its plywood and plastic versions.

In times of common appreciation of modernity, novel forms and materials, but in the face of difficulties with acquiring the latter, Polish designers searched for their substitutes.

Some of the available resources included metal reinforcment bars, which enabled the easy shaping of seats and bases according to the popular (at the time) "organic form style".

Seats could be filled with different materials: string, plastic tubes, birch. Czesław Knothe constructed a seat using metal wire, covering the whole thing in black varnish. These "poor" materials served to create an elegant piece of garden furniture that can also be used indoors.

Czesław Knothe, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, chair, 1955, steel rod frame, wire seat, black varnish

Oskar Zięta, "Plopp" metal stool, 2008–2015, stainless steel, FiDU technology

The name of the stool, „Plopp”, is the abbreviation of the furniture's description – polski ludowy obiekt pompowany powietrzem [air-inflated Polish folk object]. It was executed using innovative FiDU technology (Freie Innendruck Umformung – free inner pressure forming), which Oskar Zięta had been developing for many years at the Department of Computer Aided Architectural Design, in the Federal Polytechnic in Zurich. The FiDU technology consists in laser cutting and welding together two identical metal sheets to create metal objects appearing to be under air or water pressure. Although they are light and resemble beach toys, they are made entirely of steel. Their advantages include: high production capacity, possibility of full recycling, clean forms, as well as extraordinary structural durability.

Students of Antoni Kenar at Państwowe Liceum Technik Plastycznych [Secondary School for Arts and Technology] in Zakopane, one of whom being Władysław Hasior, trained in wood carving techniques. In the late 1940s, a series of wooden products inspired by traditional folk toys, namely mobile toys on wheels moved using a push stick, were commissioned by Biuro Nadzoru Estetyki Produkcji (Production Aesthetics Supervision Bureau). The funny and expressive "Cyclist" preempts the disobedient character of the designer's later works.

Władysław Hasior, Państwowe Liceum Technik Plastycznych [Secondary School for Arts and Technology] in Zakopane, "Cyklista" [Cyclist] stick push toy, 1948–1949, hand painted wood

Grzegorz Cholewiak, Drache & Bär Studio, Berlin, "Toll's Toy Laufrad" running wheel, 2010, plywood, beech

"Toll's Toy Laufrad" by Grzegorz Cholewiak is a wooden wheel on a stick designed for the youngest kids to play with. The product, which references traditional mobile toys, is characterized by extraordinarily meticulous construction and the high quality of materials used. It is an interesting continuation of similar designs from the forties by Jan Kurzątkowski, Antoni Kenar or Władysław Hasior. Since 2009, Cholewiak has been manufacturing his products under the Drache&Bär brand. He lives and works in Berlin (also in Cracow), and runs Dot Studio.

Wiesław Sawczuk graduated from the Faculty of Glass and Ceramics, Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, in 1959. One year later he started working in Zakładowy Ośrodek Wzorcujący, a design centre belonging to the "Hortensja" Glassworks in Piotrków Trybunalski. One of his first designs was a glass set, which included wine glasses in the distinctive shape of an hourglass. Simple, geometrical forms, conic bases made of float glass and the use of smoked and violet glass are a result of the artist's research. These simple forms can be compared to European concepts from that period, especially to Scandinavian design.

Wiesław Sawczuk, "Hortensja" Glassworks in Piotrków Trybunalski, carafe and glasses, 1960, smoked, violet and clear glass

Piotr Talma, "Sudety" Crystal Works in Szczytna Śląska, carafe and glasses from the "Gothic" glass set, 1996–1997, cut lead glass

Crystal glass is most commonly associated with heavy, densely cut forms and is often dismissed due to its bourgeois connotations. A good designer is able to propose a modern design even with this particular technology. In the 1990s, lead glass decorated with minimalistic, modern cuts emerged. Piotr Talma designed several sets suggesting historical styles, in this case being clearly inspired by soaring Gothic architecture.