In field

Władysław Skoczylas was educated both in painting, among others by Teodor Axentowicz and Leon Wyczółkowski, and in sculpture, at the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule and later in the atelier of Konstanty Laszczka. He is best known as a leading representative of wood engraving in the 1920s. There are watercolours by Skoczylas in the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin. One of them, entitled W polu [In the Field], painted around 1920, was acquired for the collection in 1960. It was the period when the artist's formal interests focused on the multicolour range used for works of a clearly decorative character. A typical representation in his works were monumentalised images of village girls referring to folk iconography. Works by Skoczylas with similar themes include W polu. Kopanie buraków [In the Field. Digging Beetroots] from 1933. The watercolour, located in Szczecin, shows a scene of three women working in the field. The first of them is crouched and holding plants in her outstretched hands. The second, in the middle of the composition, is facing left and has her hands raised. It can be interpreted in several ways, either as a stage in work in progress or gesture during the conversation with someone outside the frame. The third woman is leaning over the ground. Above them, the hillside is visible, almost merging with the clouds. Everything is shown in patches of vivid colours interrupted by unpainted parts of the paper. However, there are no traces of the work not being completed but consciously used elements of the composition. The positioning of the women, as well as the way the paint is applied, is semi-circular, which makes the work perceived cyclical.

Beata Małgorzata Wolska