Façade decoration at 44 Szeroka St.

Technique: painting

Object:

One of the two historicist façades covering a block of flats built as part of the post-war reconstruction of Gdańsk. In 2015, the façade underwent a major refurbishment under the ‘Gdańskie Fasady OdNowa’ project, which aimed to improve the quality of public spaces in Główne Miasto by adding architectural decoration to existing buildings that were omitted during Gdańsk’s reconstruction.

The eastern, triaxial façade gained a painted decoration. In the gable end between the fourth and fifth storeys, a strip of inter-window space was covered with a maritime scene showing three fishing boats. Above the central one is a tondo with an allegorical figure of a woman. The entire premise is maintained in grisaille.

Place:

The building is located in an area designated as a heritage site. It forms part of the historic urban layout of Gdańsk. Szeroka Street was destroyed in 1945 during World War II. Most of the tenement houses were rebuilt without respecting the historical layout. Historic remnants can only be seen in the distinction of the separate façades with gables and in the ridge layout perpendicular to the street. The height and width of the buildings were standardised, and consequently, the historic parcelling was not maintained. Retail and service units were located in the ground floor. Szeroka Street acts as a boundary between the historicising reconstruction and modern development: a place where the two ways of post-war reconstruction intertwine.

Information about the author:

Rafał Roskowiński (b. 1966) graduated from the Faculty of Painting and Graphics of the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. He earned his MA in 1990 from Professor Jerzy Zabłocki’s studio. In 2016, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska in Lublin. Between 1990 and 1992, he worked as an assistant in the painting studios of the Faculty of Painting and Graphic Arts and Design and Interior Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. He currently works at the Institute of Fine Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the UMCS in Lublin. Roskowiński was one of the pioneers of the artistic mural in Poland. He was active in the public space in the 1980s and 1990s. To commemorate the 1000^th anniversary of the city of Gdańsk in 1997, he organised the international Monumental Art festival, which resulted in ten works on the façades of buildings in the Zaspa district. The Monumental Art festival organised since 2009 is a follow-up of this event. Roskowiński is the founder and supervisor of the Gdańsk School of Murals and holder of the ‘Splendor Gedanensis’ Award for Culture of the City of Gdańsk (2010).

Condition of the object: good

Owner/guardian: Ankra

Author of the entry: Noemi Etush