Jacob Theodor Klein

Technique: granite sculpture

Dimensions:

Object: Ewa Beyer-Formela’s sculpture of Jacob Theodor Klein forms part of the “Great Citizens of Gdańsk” section of the Gdańsk Open-Air Sculpture Gallery. It was created in 2008 during the Kashubian Granite Sculpture Plein-Air, which took place in the Kashubian Ethnographic Park in Wdzydze Kiszewskie. The open-air workshop was attended by 11 artists representing a generation of masters and a generation of students. All of them were asked to depict famous inhabitants of Gdańsk in granite. A total of 11 sculptures were produced and subsequently placed in Gdańsk’s Ronald Reagan Park. At present, the gallery is composed of ten works, one of them incomplete; Bente Kluge’s statue of Lech Wałęsa has disappeared.

Ewa Beyer-Formela decided to sculpt the figure of Jacob Theodor Klein, the Gdańsk diplomat and scientist, naturalist, founder of the botanic garden and greenhouse in today’s Długie Ogrody. During a plein-air workshop in Wdzydze Kiszewskie, the artist made two granite sculptures of a similar shape, one with a realistic portrait of Klein, the other with outlines of shells. Eventually, the work chosen for Przymorze Park was a light granite sculpture resembling a snail shell. It was placed without a plinth, directly on the ground, and can now be seen among the flower bushes. Accessing it is difficult, which is in line with philosophy of the artist, who lives in harmony with nature, constantly listening to it and discovering its mysteries in the course of her creative work. Given Ewa Beyer-Formela’s passion for the plant and animal world, the choice of the famous resident of Gdańsk was obvious, and portraying him in the form of a shell hidden among vegetation shows the conceptual idea and dialogue between the work of Ewa Beyer-Formela and the studies of the naturalist Jacob Theodor Klein.

Place: The “Great Citizens of Gdańsk” Open-Air Sculpture Gallery is located in the park named after President Ronald Reagan, an honorary citizen of Gdańsk. The gallery may be found in the part of the park situated in the Przymorze Wielkie neighbourhood. The 85 ha park stretches along the coastal belt of Gdańsk, encompassing the districts of Przymorze Wielkie, the western part of Brzeźno and the eastern part of the Żabianka-Wejhera-Jelitkowo-Tysiąclecia quarter. This area used to be occupied by temporary allotment gardens and wasteland. The plan to develop the seaside area for recreational purposes was drawn up in 2001 and implemented in stages until 2014. In addition to areas where one can relax, engage in physical activity or make a bonfire, the park was diversified with outflow ponds with living shorelines and nesting islands for waterbirds. In 2008, the Ronald Reagan Park in Gdańsk received a distinction from the Society of Polish Town Planners (TUP), which recognized it as the best managed green space in Poland.

Information about the author: Ewa Beyer-Formela (b. 1935 in Kartuzy) is a sculptor. She graduated from the Faculty of Sculpture of the State School of Visual Arts (PWSSP) in Gdańsk – the present-day Academy of Fine Arts (Prof. Stanisław Horno-Popławski’s studio). She participated in the reconstruction of Gdańsk, creating sculptural works in stone. She has taken part in numerous plein-air sculpture workshops as well as solo and group exhibitions. Beyer-Formela was the initiator and organizer of granite sculpture plein-airs in Wdzydze Kiszewskie, the first of which was held in 1974. In 2010, she was decorated with the Gloria Artis medal. Her outdoor sculptures may be seen in Tri-City, Grudziądz, Warsaw, Frankenthal (Germany), Oslo (Norway) as well as Italy, France and Belgium.

Condition of the object: no remarks

Owner/guardian: Gdańsk Community Foundation

Author of the entry: Dorota Kucharczyk