Irene Kowaliska

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Irene Kowaliska (born November 6, 1905 in Warsaw ; † March 13, 1991 in Rome ) was a painter , ceramicist and textile designer from Poland who lived and worked in Italy .

Irene Kowaliska came to Vienna with her family as a little girl , was still a school girl when she stood in front of a mosaic in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and knew: “I want to be able to do that too!”. In 1927, at the age of 22, she graduated from the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna, where she studied mosaics, sculpture and embroidery .

The inflation of the Great Depression in 1929 left the father poor. Irene tried to contribute to the livelihood as a nanny and tutor, and in 1929 accepted a position in the picture archive of Ullstein Verlag in Berlin , where she came into contact with intellectuals and artists. Through Erika Mitterer's friendship with Ina Seidel , she made friends with Ina Seidel's circle in Berlin, made friends with Ina's daughter Heilwig and met staunch Nazi functionaries there . She got to know the poet Armin T. Wegner , who was imprisoned for months because of his letter to Hitler protesting against discrimination against Jews, and whom she was later to marry.

In 1931 Irene Kowaliska was given the opportunity to work in a pottery for the production of artistic ceramics in Vietri sul Mare , the "ICS" (Industria Ceramica Salernitana), which belonged to the German industrialist Max Melamerson. She moved to Italy with almost no money. Here she met Richard Dölker , the factory's artistic director. Other employees were the German ceramist Barbara Margarethe Thewalt-Hannasch , the German painter Lisel Oppel , the ceramist Lothar Eglive, the potter Pieschen, the model maker Hilde Rauberling and local potters. Soon she was allowed to design vessels according to her own designs. The response to an exhibition of her objects in Vienna in the same year was so great that she returned to Vietri with full order books. She got her own studio in 1932 at the "ICAM" (Industria Ceramiche Artistiche Meridionali), which belonged to the ceramist Vincenzo Pinto, who worked with members of the "German Colony" in Vietri.

Irene Kowaliska traveled to Sardinia for study purposes; In 1933 she moved to the French Riviera, where she opened a small ceramic laboratory. But disappointed with the local distilling techniques she returned to Vietri sul Mare and continued her cooperation with the “ICAM”. In 1937 she finally opened her own workshop in Vietri.

From 1940 a relationship developed between Irene Kowaliska and Armin T. Wegner . He had settled in neighboring Positano in 1936 . Due to persecution, they could not marry until 1945. When the material for pottery became scarce, Irene Kowaliska switched to fabric printing in 1940 and moved to a room in Rome that served as an apartment during the day and as a studio at night. In 1941 Michele Wegner , called Mischa, the son of AT Wegner and Irene Kowaliska, was born.

The family now lived in Positano. The workshop in Vietri had been destroyed by bombs. Irene sold her textile art through her Roman partner and a small local shop. In 1956 they moved into an apartment in Rome, now connected to a sufficiently large studio , in which not only fabrics and billets were printed, but also book covers were designed, glass medallions with icon painting , tapestries and embroidery and bergamot boxes, in one by a Sicilian artist that was exclusive to her ceded procedures.

Irene Kowaliska participated with her works in many exhibitions and trade fairs and represented Italy at congresses of the “ World Crafts Council ”. She was considered one of the major exponents who contributed to the rebirth of Vietri ceramics.

Armin T. Wegner died in 1978, Irene Kowaliska died in Rome in 1991.

literature

  • Irene Kowaliska, Giuseppe Liverani, Giovanni Michelucci, Michele Santonocito Gino Frattani: Hanno Ricordato Gambone, Luglio, 1970.
  • Solarita Ceramica. Catalogo della mostra di ceramica tenutasi a Dusseldorf dal 29 September 1988 al 4 October 1988. Istituto per il Commercio Estero, Rome 1988.
  • Eduardo Alamaro: Irene Kowaliska. Un 'artista, una donna, un mito. Pironti, Naples 1992.
  • Eduardo Alamaro, Fabio Donato: Irene Kowaliska - Un 'artista una donna un mito, Tullio Pironti Editore, 1992 (Italian)
  • Eduardo Alamaro: E pasture d '' a meraviglia di Irene Kowaliska, De Luca Editore, Salerno 2000.
  • Esther Dür: Erika Mitterer and the Third Reich. Writing between protest, adaptation and forgetting . Praesens Verlag, Vienna 2006, ISBN 978-3-7069-0351-6 , p. 31 ff.
  • Martin G. Petrowsky: "You have work, food - be grateful!". A memory of Irene Kowaliska-Wegner . In: The literary wren No. 1/2007, pp. 9–11 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Esther Dür: The "Ina case" , in The friendship between Erika Mitterer and Ina Seidel .
  2. ↑ Richard Dölker , on eart.de, accessed June 16, 2015
  3. ↑ Barbara Margarethe Thewalt-Hannasch (Italian) ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on MAACC Modern Art Amalfi Coast Center online, accessed June 16, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.maacc.it
  4. ↑ Werner Hellwig: Capri: Lieblicher Nfug der Götter, Dietrichs, 1959, Irene Kowaliska cover designer
personal data
SURNAME Kowaliska, Irene
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kowaliska-Wegner, Irene; Wegner-Kowaliska, Irene Maria; Wegner, Irene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish-Italian painter, ceramist and textile designer
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 1991
Place of death Rome