When it was difficult to find distinctive and original elements in Polish interiors, ceramic figurines designed by artists employed at the Institute of Industrial Design in Warsaw were objects of admiration and a reason to be jealous (if someone managed to “hunt” something interesting in a shop). From the mid-1950s onwards, ceramic, fragile “trinkets” were created at the Ceramics and Glass Factory of the Institute of Industrial Design. Their designs were made by a group of talented people, interestingly enough – mostly architecture graduates. The imagination of Lubomir Tomaszewski (1923-2018) created, among others, the figures of the “Fox,” the “Kiwi,” the “Camel” and the “Singers.” A series of experiments led to the creation of coffee services with unusual dynamic shapes. These items handed down from generation to generation, bought at auctions, are still in great demand today. Although more than half a century has passed, we still dream of decorating a contemporary shelf with a Camel figurine.
Agnieszka Wysocka – art historian, lecturer at the University of Kazimierz Wielki in Bydgoszcz, employee of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Culture Centre in Bydgoszcz (Cultural Heritage Workshop), researches the history of architecture of the 19th and 20th centuries, author of scientific and popular science publications.

online lecture
broadcoast: 09.12.2020 – 09.01.2021