Jump to content

Karol Mondral

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Wikibenchris (talk | contribs) at 16:54, 25 February 2023. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Karol Mondral
Karol Mondral, Self-portrait, 1914
Karol Mondral, Self-portrait 1914
Born
Karol Mondral

(1880-01-26)January 26, 1880
Warsaw,  Kingdom of Poland
DiedDecember 16, 1957(1957-12-16) (aged 77)
Poznań,  Poland
NationalityPolish
OccupationPainter

Karol Mondral (1880-1957) was a Polish painter and graphic artist.

Biography

Youth

Karol Mondral was born on Januray 25, 1880, in Warsaw, to Jan Mondral and Maria née Paczuska. His father ran a small painting and decoration workshop in the district of Powiśle.[1]

Between 1894 and 1900, he studied at the Warsaw Drawing School (now the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw) with professors such as Wojciech Gerson, Jan Kauzik or Adam Badowski.[2]

In 1902, Karol went to Kraków to continue his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, in the class of Leon Wyczółkowski.[3] Unfortunately, the death his father forced him to return to Warsaw, so as to take care of his mother and younger siblings. He took over the workshop, making portraits, designing posters, playbills, book covers, models for nearby Hempel factory, but was still dreaming of graphic design.[1]

In 1905, Mondral, an excellent violinist, met Roma Pogorzelska at concerts she used to organized, while working at a piano factory. They married on August 27, 1907.[1]

Life in Paris

Stefan Stasiak, a friend of the young couple, went to Paris to pursue oriental studies: he invited Roma and Karol to visit him. French composer Louis Fleury (1878-1926) and his rich wife offered the painter a loan of 50 rubles for the trip the couple made in 1909.[1]

In the French capital, Modral perfected his technique of etching.[4] Roma and Karol settled in Montparnasse, at "La Ruche". [5]

He made also many trips around France and Switzerland, while looking for subjects for his works.

A wealthy American businessman would come to Paris once a year, buying everything Mondral managed to create. Thanks to him, the artist could rent a second studio and open his own etching press.[1]

Initially, the artist showed in his engravings picturesque corners of the French province ("Saint-Jean-de-Luz"-1912, "The Fish Merchant"-1912, "The guy from Concarneau-1915)), working the landscape in Whistler's way. He meticulously recreated the varied texture of stone facades in small-town streets, rendering the blurred architectural details of Paris fragmented buildings ("Cluny Abbey"-1912) or the decorative lattice of tree branches, like in Japanese woodcuts ("By the Seine"-1910).[3]

This period was one of intense creativity, which allowed him to participate in salon exhibitions.

During World War I, the family lived mainly in Paris and traveled to Brittany and Lake Geneva. Roma, like other Polish women, actively supported Poles fighting in the Russian army on the Eastern Front, as mentioned by Karol's daughter Camilla in her biography.[1]

In November 1918, Karol took part in an exhibition organized to the benefits of the invalids of the Polish Army in France, together with 38 other artists. In the early 1920s, Konstanty Brandel came from newly independent Poland with a job offer at the "State School of Art Industry" in Bydgoszcz.[1]

Back to Poland

Bydgoszcz

On April 1, 1922, Mondral returned to Poland and settled in Bydgoszcz, working as the head of the Graphic Department at the National School of Arts and Crafts. The family lived at 11 Świętej Trójcy street and then in a villa at 3 Chopina street.[1]

At the school, Karol set up a vocational school for printers.[3] Furthermore, he accepted a commissioning of the City Council for making etchings of views of Bydgoszcz: hence he documented the municipal architecture with around 100 engravings.

Poznań and Warsaw

In March 1, 1931, the painter was hired as a professor at the Faculty of Graphic Arts of the State School of Decorative Arts (Template:Lang-pl) in Poznań. Karol and his family only moved in September 1932, changing apartments several times.

He eventually chaired the school studio of lithography and dry-engraving techniques until the outbreak of World War II.

The start of the conflict found Mondral in Warsaw, on his way from Krzemieniec to Poznań. In the Polish capital, he received a sentence from the Nazi authorities to move to a resettlement camp in Poznań, then to a transit camp near Lublin.[1] Back anew in Warsaw, he left the city at the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, ending in Tarnów.

During the occupation, the family's flat in Poznań was occupied by German soldiers: most of the furnishings and the works were looted (160 oil paintings, 200 plates of copper engravings, etchings, aquatints, about 60 woodcuts, about 130 copies, sculptures and valuable works by other artists).[1]

In 1945, he returned to Poznań and became a lecturer of graphic sciences at the State Higher School of Fine Arts.[4]

He got retired in 1950.[6] On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of artistic work, he received a touching gift - a graphic portfolio made by his students, dated June 28, 1952.

Karol Mondral passed away in Poznań on December 16, 1957. His remains rest together with his wife at the cemetery of Pyry, Warsaw, where his daughter Camilla had them transferred in 1983.[1]

Exhibitions

In Paris, the painter could exhibit in solo at two occasions: in 1919 at the "Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts" and in 1921 at the seat of "L'Association France-Pologne".[3] in 1923 and 1930 he had individual exhibitions in Warsaw, and in 1928 and 1947 in Poznań.

[3] : He was awarded at the 1st Graphic Competition. H. Grohman in Zakopane in 1911 ("Shoemaker", etching), and in the second edition of this competition in 1914 he received the second prize ("Zuzanna", etching).[1] In Poland, he presented his graphics at the Warsaw Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts (1903-39), the Polish Art Society (1931) and the Institute of Art Propaganda (1936), in Lviv (1913, 1916, 1926, 1928, 1930), Poznań (1925, 1927 , 1929, 1930, 1932, 1933), Zamość (1926), Bydgoszcz (1924, 1931, 1932, 1936), Łódź (1925), Toruń (1930), Kraków (1931) and Vilnius (1931).

In May 1979, the Polish Post issued a stamp commemorating Karol Mondral, with one of his aquaforte, "Portret żony z naparstnicami" (Template:Lang-en), inspired by Karol's wife.[7]

  • Karol Mondral 1881-1957", Bydgoszcz 2012
  • Karol Mondral. Twórczość graficzna między Paryżem, Bydgoszczą a Poznaniem", Bydgoszcz[2], Poznan and Paris (Polish Library in Paris 23 octobre 2013 au 29 novembre 2013)[8]

Works

Mondral mainly used metal techniques using etching, aquatint, drypoint and soft varnish; he used lithography and woodcut less often. He also made painting compositions influenced by Jacek Malczewski's symbolism, portraits, landscapes and still lifes with flowers.[3] He practiced techniques in metal using etching, aquatint, drypoint and soft varnish; he used lithography and woodengraving less frequently, while living in Paris he dealt with color woodcuts. He created impressionistic landscapes, figural scenes and portraits. He regularly exhibited his works in the Warsaw Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pieknych, Polish Art Society and Institute of Art Propaganda, moreover he exhibited in Lviv, in Poznań, Zamość, Bydgoszczy, Łódź, Toruń, Kraków and Vilnius] .

Karol Mondral's prints decorated the tourist class cabins of of the ocean liner "Piłsudski", whose interiors were decorated in 1934 by a team of 78 Polish artists.[3] In 1959, a posthumous exhibition was held in Poznań presenting a cross-section of the artist's work, 157 graphics from 1910-1938, 14 oil paintings from 1913-1953[9].

Nowadays, his works can be found in many museums collections: Stanisław Fischer Museum in Bochnia, 11 works from the National Museum in Warsaw, 15 graphics from the National Museum in Poznań, In addition, exhibits from the National Library in Warsaw, the Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich Ossoliński National Institute in Wrocław, the University Library in Warsaw, the University Library in Toruń, the Provincial and Municipal Library in Toruń Witold Bełza Public Library in Bydgoszcz, from the collection of in its own District Museum. Leon Wyczółkowski in Bydgoszcz, as well as private collections.

Etchings:

Woodcut:

  • Pokłon pasterzy, 1917
  • Archanioł Michał, 1919
  • Profil górala

Paintings:

  • WAWEL, 1903
  • Bajka, 1909
  • Dziewczynka, 1923
  • WIEJSKA SIELANKA, 1945 R.

Membership

He belonged to Zwiazek Polskich Artystów Plastyki (Association of Polish Graphic Artists) and Plastyka group of artists from Wielkopolska (grupa artystów wielkopolskich „Plastyka”) artistic group Plastyka.[3]

  • Związek Polskich Artystów Grafików,
  • Związek Plastyków Pomorskich w Bydgoszczy,
  • Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych

Family

Karol Mondral married to Romana Pogorzelska in 1907. They had a daughter, Camilla Mondral, and a son Stefan.

Camilla was born in Paris on June 30, 1911.She went to the "Bydgoszcz Catholic Humanities Gymnasium for girls" (Żeńskie Gimnazjum Humanistyczne), today's High School No. 6, Bydgoszcz.[1] , a writer, an outstanding translator from Hungarian[10] after the treacherous sale of valuable family heirlooms from the house by her only son Stefan-Kuba Pęksa

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Karol Mondral.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Bazial, Jolanta (6 May 2013). Karol Mondral – życie i twórczość [Karol Mondral - Life and work] (in Polish). Bydgoszcz: Akant.
  2. ^ a b Dąbska, Ewa (18 April 2013). "Grafiki Karola Mondrala w Muzeum Okręgowym w Bydgoszczy". radiopik.pl. Radio PiK SA. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Kossowska, Irena (May 2004). "Karol Mondral". culture.pl. Instytut Adama Mickiewicza. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Karol Mondral". desa.pl. Desa Unicum. 2022. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
  5. ^ Chojnacka, Barbara (8 August 2013). "Muzeum Okręgowe śladami Mondrala podąża do Paryża". bydgoszcz24.pl. bydgoszcz24. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  6. ^ Gąsiorowski, Antoni; Topolski, Jerzy. Wielkopolski słownik biograficzny [Biographical Dictionary of Greater Poland] (in Polish). Warsaw-Poznań: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. ISBN 83-01-02722-3.
  7. ^ ""Portrait of the Wife with Foxgloves", by Karol Mondral". colnect.com. shopGold. 2013. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  8. ^ "Exposition Karol MONDRAL (1880-1957), œuvre graphique entre Paris, Bydgoszcz et Poznań". bibliotheque-polonaise-paris-shlp.fr. Bibliothèque Polonaise de Paris. 2013. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  9. ^ Irena Kossowska, Karol Mondral, Art Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, May 2004, culture.pl.
  10. ^ 2/ Camilla Mondral, Association of Polish Writers, Warsaw Branch.

Bibliography

  • Woźniak, Michał (2013). Karol Mondral [Karol Mondral] (in Polish). Bydgoszcz: Muzeum Okręgowe im. Leona Wyczółkowskiego.
  • Bazial, Jolanta (6 May 2013). Karol Mondral – życie i twórczość [Karol Mondral - Life and work] (in Polish). Bydgoszcz: Akant.

Template:Bydgoszcz personages


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Karol_Mondral&oldid=1141551785"