The Arton Foundation is beginning work on the archive of Hanna Orzechowska (1923-2008).

Hanna Orzechowska was born on January 1, 1923 in Warsaw. In 1946, Hanna Orzechowska began her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, at the Faculty of Interior Design, in the Department of Graphic Arts under Władysław Strzemiński and at the Faculty of Textile Design. She took part in lectures on the history of art by Prof. Władysław Strzemiński and in his numerous plein-airs in Nowa Wieś and Nowa Ruda, together with Stanisław Fijałkowski, Danuta Kulanka, Stefan Krygier, Bolesław Utkin, Judyta Sobel, among others. She had a deep friendship with Władysław Strzeminski until the end of his life, and after his death in 1952, Orzechowska repeatedly supported his daughter, Nika Strzeminska.

In 1951, she earned a diploma in printmaking, and in 1952 a diploma in textile printing. From 1952 to 1955, she continued her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw at the Faculty of Painting in the studio of Professor Eugeniusz Eibisch.

From 1955 to 1957, she worked as a designer of textile printing at the Institute of Industrial Design in Warsaw. In 1957, she took a job at the Textile Department of the Apparel Printing Study at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Lodz under the direction of Prof. Teresa Tyszkiewicz. She was involved in preliminary design, clothing fabric design, clothing print design (1957-1959). Since 1963, she independently taught classes in the design of printed clothing and decorative fabrics and created, what was a novelty, a studio of unique fabrics. Since 1957, she worked as an assistant professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, later (since 1973), as a professor at this university.

She created paintings, collages, experimented with painting techniques, in her compositions she combined printing, textile, photographic and sculptural elements, printed fabric (film prints for her were realized by the Experimental Workshops of the PWSSP), graphics, illustrations (in the 1950s she cooperated with the magazine "Nowa Kultura", among others). She belonged to the Club of Young Artists and Scientists in Warsaw. In 1947 she took part in the National Exhibition of Avant-Garde Painters, alongside Władysław Strzeminski, Stefan Wegner, Lech Kunka and Teresa Tyszkiewicz, among others.

In 1979, a burglary and arson attack on her Warsaw studio deprived her of much of her artistic output; after this tragic event, Orzechowska suffered a nervous breakdown, from which she nevertheless managed to recover. Her deteriorating health made it impossible for her to continue her creative work.

In the first period of her work (1955-58), Hanna Orzechowska was influenced by her professor Władyslaw Strzemiński and his concept of Unism, but, as she said, it was a polemical inspiration. Beginning in 1960, the artist began experimenting with collage, developing her own unique creative language.

Orzechowska died in Paris in 2008. Her archive has never been compiled, her oeuvre has never been studied, and no monograph on the artist has been published. The present task is the first stage of evoking her oeuvre for Polish culture by conducting, among other things, an inventory of the archive, lectures on her work, guided tours of the artists studio and workshops.

The task is carried out in cooperation with Agata Siecińska, the artists daughter, and Prof. Luiza Nader (WBASK ASP in Warsaw).

We invite you to view a 3D model of Hanna Orzechowskas apartment-studio

https://wnetrza3d.pl/realizacje/fundacja-arton/pracownia-hanny-orzechowskiej-5763/

Co-financed by the City of Warsaw