Floral composition

Zygmunt Skrętowicz was born in 1902 in the village of Kuropatniki, the Brzeżany district, the Tarnopol Voivodeship. There he became a blacksmith but also worked as a stonemason. In 1946, he came to Worowo in the Łobez district, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, and after receiving a farm, he made a living from farming. In 1948, he started to sculpt. He quickly achieved his style, which resulted in participation and numerous awards at local, national and international exhibitions. His sculpture 'Organ Grinder' was even featured on a postage stamp. He was an excellent colourist. In the 1960s, when most non-professional artists succumbed to the fashion of displaying raw wood (or only waxed/stained wood), he was one of the few who did not give up polychrome sculptures. The subject matter of his works is primarily customary, related to weddings, music and relaxation. He also sculpted works dedicated to the victims of concentration camps. He died in Worowo in 1971.Towards the end of his life, Skrętowicz took a liking to sculpting flowers, a subject that sculptors rarely undertook. His floral representations are usually arranged in the form of a bouquet supported on a base in the shape of a truncated pyramid with a square base. Most often, it is a flattened, flat-carved composition developed only on the frontal side. The flowers in the bouquet, with flat five-petalled, strongly inclined heads, are arranged in tiers, with leaves twisting between them. The whole is crowned with a tall cup-shaped flower (tulip?). The base is decorated with oak leaves. These compositions are painted in many colours, with an excellent feeling for colour. It is not difficult to notice the similarity between them and the embroidery of Tarnopol, in which, as in Skrętowicz's bouquets, five-petalled mallow and poppy flowers, soft and wavy lines and multi-colourism with the predominance of red.

Iwona Karwowska