page_title: Zofia Stryjeńska
section_title: Interwar period
hierarchical_section_title: Zofia Stryjeńska / Biography / Interwar period
caption_attribution_description: English: Polish pavilion, example of art déco architecture (architects Józef Czajkowski, Wojciech Jastrzębowski and sculptor Hernyk Kuna and painters Tadeusz Gronowski, Józef Mehoffer and Zofia Stryjeńska won Golden Medals in Paris) at International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, Paris, 1925. This Autochrome was not colorized.Polski: Polski pawilon w Paryżu na Międzynarodowej Wystawie Sztuki Dekoracyjnej i Wzornictwa w 1925. Przykład architektury art déco inspirowanej klasycznym dworkiem polskim, barokowymi kościołami i stylem zakopiańskim. Próba stworzenia polskiego stylu narodowego. Architekci Józef Czajkowski, Wojciech Jastrzębowski i rzeźbiarz Hernyk Kuna i malarze Tadeusz Gronowski, Józef Mehoffer oraz Zofia Stryjeńska otrzymali złote medale. Francuski krytyk sztuki pochodzenia polskiego Waldemar George, redaktor naczelny miesięcznika L’Amour de l’Art napisał (1925): „Pawilon polski uważam za najbardziej oryginalny i skończony ze wszystkich pawilonów cudzoziemskich. Stanowi znakomitą jedność i w równie największym stopniu jest polski, nie przestając być nowoczesnym.” Jest to fotografia kolorowa (autochrom), która nie została pokolorowana.
context_page_description: Zofia Stryjeńska – was a Polish painter, graphic designer, illustrator, stage designer, a representative of art deco. Along with Olga Boznańska and Tamara de Lempicka, she was one of the best-known Polish women artists of the interwar period. In the 1930s she was nominated for the prestigious Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature, but declined the offer.
context_section_description: On 4 November 1916 Zofia married Karol Stryjeński, an architect of the Zakopane style. They had three children: daughter Magda and twins Jacek and Jan. Stryjeński introduced his wife to his friends, artists and representatives of world literature. She met, among others, Wladyslaw Skoczylas, Henryk Kune, Stefan Żeromski, Władysław Reymont, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and later several poets of the Skamander group.
  In the period 1921 – 1927, she lived in Zakopane, where her husband worked as a director of the School for the Wood Industry. This period, started out happy and with abundant creativity. However, over the years she became more and more estranged from Karol, which eventually led to open conflict and divorce in 1927. Karol died in 1932.
  After the divorce, she moved to Warsaw, where in 1929 she married actor Artur Klemens Socha. The marriage was soon ended, as she discovered that he suffered from syphilis. By the end of the 1930s she was connected, also for a short time, with the architect and bon vivant Achilles Brez and then with the traveller and writer Arkady Fiedler.
  In the first half of the 1930s she was a forgotten artist. Stryjeńska did not want to seek recognition. She desperately needed money, as she sold few paintings. Only in 1938 did she receive several orders from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including one for a kilim for the Emperor of Japan Hirohito. She took part in the interior decoration of the Polish passenger ships "Batory"and "Pilsudski" and the interior decoration  of Wedel's cafe. People started buying her paintings of Slavic and historical themes again.
  She spent the second world war in Kraków. In 1943 she discovered she had syphilis, which affected her eyes so that at times she could not paint. In the beginning of 1945 the Russians entered the city, instituting a communist regime. Stryjeńska decided to leave Poland. She joined her children in Geneva. After many years in Paris, she settled in Geneva, where her daughter and her sons lived. She tried to go to the U.S., seeking help from the Kosciuszko Foundation. However, the Board of the Foundation rejected her. She continued to live very modestly in Geneva, helped by her children. She remained emotionally connected with Poland and the Polish culture, Switzerland remained a foreign country to her. She died in 1976 in Geneva and was buried in the local Chêne-Bourg cemetery.
caption: Poland's pavilion in Paris in 1925 was decorated by Zofia Stryjeńska.
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