Hanna Krzetuska-Geppert (1903 - 1999), SPLOTY 6/77, 1977

oil/canvas,twine, 99.5 x 59, 5 cm
signed, dated and described on the reverse on the stretcher bar:
KRZETUSKA | SPLOTY 6/77 | PŁ. SPLOTS
on canvas caption: KRZETUSKA

Splots is a unique work in the artistic output of Hanna Krzetuska-Geppert. It is a kind of installation using a wooden frame to which two painted canvas fragments, connected by a zigzag stitch, have been attached. The artist was encouraged by the words of Alphonse Mazurkiewicz, founder of the Wrocław School and a friend of the Geppert family: "Make me something that is not just a painting, play with different materials," she created this original work.

Hanna Krzetuska studied at the Ludwika Mehoffer Free School of Painting and Drawing in Cracow from 1920 to 1924 with Jerzy Fedkowicz, Zbigniew Pronaszko and Jan Rubczak . She also graduated from the Higher Courses for Women. In 1925 she left for several months of art studies in Paris. Since 1926, she was a member of the Association of Visual Artists, and since 1937 of the Association of Visual Artists "Zwornik" in Cracow. During World War II, she was active in the underground under the pseudonym "Shine." After arriving in Wroclaw, she worked at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in 1948-1960. Intellectual and cultural family traditions on the one hand, and thorough education on the other, meant that Hanna Krzetuska was able not only, together with her husband, Eugeniusz Geppert, to take on the challenge of organizing the Higher School of Fine Arts - (later Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts), but also significantly influenced the formation of artistic life in Wroclaw. Since 1961, she co-founded the Wroclaw Group, which included such prominent artists as Wanda Golkowska, Jan Jaromir Aleksiun and Konrad Jarodzki . Moving out of Cracow and traveling to the so-called Recovered Territories was only possible thanks to the joint work and similar artistic goals of both artists. Hanna Krzetuska, highly praised today by critics for her original, consistent painting program, also supported the work of Eugeniusz Geppert. After his death, she led the creation of the contemporary art gallery Geppert's Apartment, today run by the Art Transparent Foundation, in their shared studio.