Illustration: Jozef Czajkowski. Rug design, 1925.
Jozef Czajkowski is mostly known for his work as both a fine art painter and as an architect in his native Poland. However, he was also known as an educator and as a man with a passionate interest in reviving a whole range of Polish based skills and crafts.
Czajkowski became a founder member in 1901 of the Polish Applied Art Society, which was founded in the city of Cracow, which was then part of the Austrian Empire. Poland itself did not exist as a political entity and was not to do so until 1919.
Illustration: Jozef Czajkowski. Rug design, 1925.
The Society's aim was to strive for the creation of a Polish national style within the applied arts, one that would both use the traditions of Polish arts and crafts, but would also take those traditions into the contemporary world of the early twentieth century. This was all part of the ongoing issue of Polish self-determination. The Polish population were split between the empires of Russia, Germany and Austria, they had no identity of their own, and indeed any mention of Poland on any contemporary map or atlas only applied to a province or region rather than a state. Many Poles believed that the political aim of an independent Poland was certainly achievable and by keeping the identity of Polish traditions alive, whether that be through art, craft, architecture, literature or music, their identity would also remain alive and be seen by the rest of Europe as a viable culture, very much in the form of a distinct people waiting for a nation.
Illustration: Jozef Czajkowski. Rug design, 1925.
Although the Polish Applied Art Society may have had a relatively limited lifespan as did many decorative and art based societies of the period, it did help to create, along with other Polish based societies, organizations and groupings, an interest in Polish traditions within the decorative arts, with a particular emphasis on textiles. So much so that by the time of the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925, the newly independent Poland had a large percentage of traditional and contemporary textile based work to display at their pavilion in Paris.
Illustration: Jozef Czajkowski. Rug design, 1925.
Czajkowski had both the honour of designing the Polish pavilion as an architect, while also being able to display some of his own textile work, gained from the experience of his time with the Polish Applied Art Society, but especially commissioned by the Polish government for the occasion. It is interesting that a number of rugs that took pride of place within the pavilion were produced by fellow Polish Applied Art Society members such as Edward Trojanowski, but also a number of the rugs were woven in Cracow, the founding centre of the Society.
Czajkowski's rug designs are both bold and contemporary and, along with the other rugs seen at the Polish pavilion, created a big impression amongst both the public and the French organisers of the exhibition. Although the rug design work does seem impressively 'modern' for the period, the work also owes a great deal to the traditions and skills of countless generations of Polish decorative work. However, perhaps the work within the Polish Pavilion of 1925 owes an even greater debt to the work fostered, at least in part by the Polish Applied art Society and the city of Cracow.
Illustration: Jozef Czajkowski. Rug design, 1925.
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