Edward Trojanowski: The Search for Style in Early 20th-century Furniture Design in Poland

Abstract

Three sources of inspiration are discernible in early 20th-century Polish furniture design and especially in the output of artist-designers associated with the Polish Applied Art Association (TPSS), namely, folk art, the historical styles, and the modernistic/geometrical current. Edward Trojanowski’s oeuvre in that area combines all these three tendencies and embodies the evolution of a Polish approach to designing furniture; hence it may serve to illustrate the history of Polish furniture design in the early 20th century. Although initially Trojanowski turned to folk art, he did not passively copy its decorative motifs. His study of folk craft persuaded him to simplify the forms of pieces of furniture and to experiment with the use of colour in furniture design and interior decoration. Later, his search for a national style encouraged him to seek inspiration in Biedermeier furniture design, which added elegance to his designs, as evident in the proportions of the pieces of furniture and in the use of decorative veneers or sophisticated geometric ornaments. In this manner Trojanowski, while following his own artistic path, developed forms of furniture that effortlessly bear comparison with the avant-garde designs of the Modernist geometric current, as proposed by the Wiener Werkstätte and the Werkbund, which heralded the arrival of Art Déco.