Władysław SKOCZYLAS (1883-1934), Hunting, from the series: "Legends of the Tatra Mountains".

woodcut, paper, 12.5 x 15.5 cm (clear passe-partout), 23.5 x 26.5 cm (framed, passe-partout);

Wladyslaw Skoczylas was one of the most important artists of the interwar period in Poland.

He received a broad artistic education - initially he received his education in Vienna, then studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. He gained additional knowledge in Paris, where he explored the secrets of sculpture, and in Leipzig, where he encountered woodcutting.

Skoczylas is considered by experts to be the founder of the Polish school of woodcuts, and it is for this type of work that he is best known.

He published a large part of his woodcuts in the early 1920s in the form of albums titled "Teka zbójnicka" and "Teka podhalańska". Their themes focused precisely on mountain folklore, the figure of Janosik and other robbers.

After the end of World War I, he settled in Warsaw, where he lived until his death in 1934. He had his studio at Wybrzeze Kosciuszkowskie at number 37 - today it houses the Faculty of Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts. Skoczylas himself was, by the way, associated with the Academy of Fine Arts - in 1922 he took over the chair of graphic design there (at that time the university was still called the School of Fine Arts).

The artist's works won critical acclaim both at home and abroad. And so his works were exhibited in the 1920s in London, Budapest, Rome, Hamburg and Zagreb, among others. Interestingly, in 1928 Skoczylas was even awarded a medal at an exhibition held on the occasion of the Olympic Games in Amsterdam. The artist died after a long illness in 1934 and was buried in Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.