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Władysław Strzemiński i Wielka Wojna

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Luba I., Wawer E. P.

Rocznik Historii Sztuki

2015

issue 40

93-117

This paper is the first to present Władysław Strzemiński’s (1893–1952) unknown war biography – reconstructed on the basis of documents and source texts discovered by the authors during their search of Russian archives, museums and libraries. It contains unique, as well as unexpected, facts about Strzemiński’s education and military service. This period of his life as a cadet, Junker and officer of the Russian Sapper army (1904–1917) has never been studied before. Publications about Strzemiński almost exclusively refer to the information provided by his daughter Nika in her book Love, Art and Hatred, which proved to be fragmentary and on many occasions incorrect (except in the case of Olga Szichiriewa). The text testifies to the versatility of Strzemiński’s knowledge, skills and attitudes, gained in the elite establishment Mikołajewska School of Engineering in St. Petersburg. It presents us with the key episodes occurring during, as well as after, the course of his frontline service in the Osowiec Fortress (including his command of the counterattack of 6th August 1915, today known in Russian historiography and popular culture as “the attack of the dead men”). It also provides a full list of Strzemiński’s medals, as well as selected commanders’ orders and contemporary publications about his heroism. Strzemiński’s experience of the Front is outlined against a backdrop of diverse artistic production by soldiers of the opposition (Remarque, Dix, Apollinaire, Vaché, Nash and other Surrealists); the consequences of this universal experience of the hell of war on the life and work of those who survived the Great War are explored. Traces of Strzemiński’s consistently unspoken war experiences were found in his texts, Dualism and Unism (1927), Unism in Painting (1928), Aspects of Reality (1936), and in an unfinished novel. Strzemiński’s paintings reveal, albeit indirectly, the engineering and design experience he gained in Mikołajewska School of Engineering and during his service as a Sapper officer in Osowiec Fortress, as can be seen for instance in the configuration of colours in Synthetic composition (1923), or in the rules of composition and arrangement of forms in Architectural Compositions. Departing from the usual stereotype of Strzemiński as war invalid, the text makes reference to specialist literature on the subject taken from the field of individual and positive psychology. It also shows how the artist overcame his altered physique by drawing on his inner strength. The way he became complete again – as an artist, teacher, architect and urban planner – is outlined. He made art into the project of a lifetime – a total avant-garde Gesamtkunstwerk.

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Władysław Strzemiński i Wielka Wojna