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Technique: painting
Object:
A historicist façade covering a block of flats that built as part of the post-war reconstruction of Gdańsk. In 2018, 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 decoration of the corner building is on the façade facing Powroźnicza Street. The intervention covers the space of the standing hexagon spanning the second and fourth floors on the northern part of the elevation. The painting depicts small squares in an illusionistic manner. Thanks to the way they are arranged and to the colour range starting from the beige hue of the plaster, these squares form crosses. Smaller yellow crosses were placed in the central part of each.
Place:
The buildings are in an area designated as a heritage site. They form part of the historic urban layout of the city of Gdańsk. Ogarna Street was destroyed in 1945 during the war. It was rebuilt on the basis of the so-called Zachwatowicz plan that envisaged the reconstruction of historical forms, which was only feasible in the form of a workers’ housing estate. The erected block of flats was covered by a historicist façade screen. The buildings thus created were the result of combining two houses into a complex with a common staircase, an entrance from the courtyard and an even top line of windows emphasising the block-like nature of the premise.
Information about the author:
Michał Wirtel graduated from the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. He presented his graduation work in 2017 in Professor Maciej Świeszewski’s studio. He currently works as an assistant in Professor Zbigniew Gorlak’s Drawing and Painting Studio. Wirtel designs posters and album covers. He collaborated on the reconstruction of the ‘Polish Sky’ fresco by Jan Zamojski and Bolesław Cybis. He works with contemporary sacred art. Since 2015, he has been working with the Urban Forms Foundation on the Gdańskie Fasady OdNowa project. He has taken part in many national and international exhibitions and plein-air events.
Condition of the object: good
Owner/guardian: “Attyka” real estate management
Author of the entry: Noemi Etush
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