Daniel Fahrenheit

Technique: granite sculpture

Dimensions: –

Object: Lucyna Kujawa’s sculpture of Daniel Fahrenheit 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.

Lucyna Kujawa decided to sculpt a portrait of Daniel Fahrenheit, the Gdańsk-born physicist and engineer, inventor of the mercury thermometer and the temperature scale used in Anglo-Saxon countries. The sculpture, shaped like a cube with its lower part cut off, was placed on a plinth. It has a conceptual character and is a subtle portrait of the Gdańsk physicist. The idea is based on a representation of the Fahrenheit scale in stone, symbolically defined by the pink colouring of the black granite. A male profile emerges from the frontal surface of the sculpture. The artist herself emphasizes that while creating the work, she was inspired by the human element in Fahrenheit’s physics. She marked the freezing point of brine, or 0°F, in the polished stone with a separate texture, while the male profile emerging from the stone symbolizes 100°F, or 37°C. Fahrenheit was the only physicist to use a physical constant not based on the natural world around him, but on the temperature of the human body, or 37°C. The sculpture is finished on all sides.

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: Lucyna Kujawa is a sculptor. She studied sculpture and drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, graduating from Prof. Sławoj Ostrowski’s studio. Since 2019, she has run her own business, MODULO, as an extension of her creative work and in response to her clients’ needs. She likes using granite and marble in her artistic practice, but creates ceramic and cast metal works too. Kujawa also uses coloured resins enriched with aggregate and bronze, creates silicon moulds and reusable moulds. She collaborates with artists, architects and developers. Her works include the Four Quarters Fountain in Gdańsk.

Condition of the object: no remarks

Owner/guardian: Gdańsk Community Foundation

Author of the entry: Dorota Kucharczyk