Head of man

The work, outlook and vivid temperament of Stanisław Szukalski, using the pseudonym Stach z Warty, have aroused controversy almost since his artistic debut. Although born in the Congress Kingdom, he spent his childhood in the United States of America, where at the age of 13, he began attending the Art Institute of Chicago. Thanks to the intercession of the Polish sculptor Antoni Popiel, his father decided to send Stanislaw to Kraków, and, despite his young age, he was accepted into the studio of Konstanty Laszczka at the Academy of Fine Arts. He studied there until 1913, coming into conflict with his master and demonstrating independence and even disregard for the contemporary art environment in the country. A tendency to megalomania affected the reception of Szukalski's entire œuvre, who, upon his return to the US, developed an individual and complex style from 1914 onwards. Inspired by modern trends in Western art (Art Nouveau, Cubism, Expressionism) and the indigenous cultures of the Americas, Polynesia and the Far East, he created numerous chamber sculptures, designs for monuments and buildings, drawings and prints, characterised by swollen forms, rich, virtuoso detail and intricate philosophical meaning. Today, his visions of the Adam Mickiewicz monument for Vilnius (1925) or the Bolesław Chrobry monument for Katowice (1936-1939) are widely known. The Slavophile, chauvinistic and racist views expressed within the artistic school (the so-called Twórcownia) and the association (Szczep Szukalszczyków herbu Rogate Serce [The Szukalszczyk Family, the Horned Heart Coat of Arms]) established in 1929 and remotely controlled by Stach, or the pseudo-scientific linguistic and anthropological concepts developed after World War II, should be treated with reserve. Stored in the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin, Głowa mężczyzny [The Head of a Man] represents an early phase of his work - a rare example of Szukalski before Szukalski. The portrait, cast in patinated plaster, depicting a mature man with expressive features, a shapely bald skull and a long, luxuriant beard, seems to betray the influence of Laszczka's works from the Young Poland movement but also announces an interest in the idea of masculine strength, emanating from the mature works of the Polish-American sculptor.

Szymon Piotr Kubiak