Girl in a long dress
Project and execution – Leonia Chmielnik
This is one of the first works by Leonia "Lena" Chmielnik in Szczecin. The sculpture was made at the artist's initiative in early 1969. The sculpture shows a girl with a slender waist, dressed in a long, floor-length dress, in a slightly tilted back position. During a conversation in the studio, the author admitted that she had sculpted... herself.
The sculpture was initially displayed on the lawn between the Pomeranian Dukes' Castle and the Church of St. Peter and Paul, as part of a mini exhibition prepared outdoors by a group of sculptors from Szczecin. A few weeks later, the sculpture was knocked over and partially damaged. After being repaired, it was moved near the Loitz Tenement House (the seat of the Art High School) on Kurkowa Street, where it was again decapitated and knocked over. The sculptor recreated the missing head and restored the sculpture, which was re-exhibited in front of the entrance to the Summer Theatre in 2012. Due to this location, many people mistakenly believed it to be a monument to Helena Majdaniec, and the lack of a plaque made it impossible to correctly identify the sculpture and its creator.
Archival photograph of the sculpture:
Photo from the private archive of Leonia Chmielnik
Leonia „Lena” Chmielnik
(born 21 February 1941 in Cieszyn) - Polish sculptor. In 1965 she graduated from the Faculty of Painting Graphics and Sculpture of the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Poznań. She studied in the studios of: Jacek Puget, Bazyli Wojtowicz and Tadeusz Brzozowski. In 1965 she arrived in Szczecin, where she settled permanently. She has received a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and Art three times. She has participated in many plein-air workshops as well as individual and collective exhibitions in Poland and abroad. She creates sculptural works in metal, stone, wood and ceramics. She also paints and prints. She has published a volume of poems, entitled ‘Entering Stone’, which is her poetic debut.
Text and study: Marta Płachta - author of the project entitled 'Halo! Whose sculpture is this?" (SBO 2024 edition)
https://infoludek.pl/szczecin/halo-czyja-to-rzezba-czyli-projekt-podpisania-szczecinskich-pomnikow/
Source:
https://bip.um.szczecin.pl/chapter_59232.asp;
wikipedia;
statement about the sculpture and private archive of Leonia Chmielnik