Penguin sculpture

Technique: mosaic, ceramics

Dimensions: over 2 m high

Object:

This animalist, three-dimensional sculpture depicts a larger-than-life penguin with its head raised and wings tucked to the sides and is made in the mosaic technique out of broken multi-coloured ceramic pieces. To make it, the artist used damaged ceramic vessels obtained from the Włocławek faience factory. The sculptural composition is monumental and static, delicately dynamized by the introduced colours: a range of browns, ochres and whites that allude to the penguin’s natural colours.

The sculpture was made in the Gdańsk Zoological Garden during a sculptural plein-air session curated by the sculptor Irena Zabrocka. The 1^st National Animalist Plein-Air lasted between 3 and 31 August 1974 and was attended by 14 sculptors from Gdańsk, Warsaw, Kraków, and Katowice. During the plein-air workshop, the artists created figures of birds and other animals in various materials and techniques. Among the Gdańsk artists participating in the project were Franciszek Drozd, Alfons Łosowski, Irena Loroch, Zygmunt Kępski, Eugeniusz Maciejewski, and Ewa Beyer-Formela.

Franciszek Drozd’s sculpture appealed to the then director of the institution, Michał Massalski. After the plein-air event, it remained in the garden, becoming one of the symbols of the Gdańsk zoo and one of the 30 most interesting sculptures in Polish zoological gardens.

Place:

The sculpture is inside the Gdańsk Zoological Garden located in a charming part of Oliwa. It is placed behind the zoo’s main entrance, right next to the pool of African penguins.

Information about the author:

Franciszek Drozd (b. 1919 in the Vilnius region, d. 1991 in Gdańsk) was a sculptor. In 1939, he graduated from the Non-Commissioned Infantry Officer School for Minors in Konin. He took an active part in the 1939 September Campaign, fighting in the 10^th Infantry Regiment in Łowicz. Following the September defeat, as corporal with the nom de guerre “Promyk”, he fought in the Home Army’s 1^st Vilnius Brigade under Czesław Grombczewski “Jurand” (for instance in the battle for the liberation of Vilnius). He suffered repressions and, between 1944 and 1945, was imprisoned in lager no. 1 in Vilnius (Исправительно-трудовая колония №1, Rosa 2). In 1945, he arrived in Gdańsk with his family as a repatriate. In 1949-1953 he studied at the Faculty of Sculpture of the State School of Visual Arts in Sopot (PWSSP) – the present-day Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk – under Prof. Stanisław Horno-Popławski. He took part in the reconstruction of Gdańsk as a stonemason/sculptor (first as an employee of the Urban Construction Association, then at the Monument Conservation Workshop), reconstructing sculptures, bas-reliefs and figures in Główne Miasto. In 1966, he was accepted to the Association of Polish Artists and Designers (ZPAP) on the basis of works presented to the committee. Between 1967 and 1968, as a sculptor, he took part in reconstruction works conducted by the Polish-Egyptian archaeological and conservation mission at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahari. Franciszek Drozd produced many statues designed by eminent artists (e.g., the statue of Adam Mickiewicz in Warsaw designed by Stanisław Horno-Popławski, the monument to the victims of the Treblinka extermination camp designed by Franciszek Duszeńko or the Monument to the Defenders of the Coast by Franciszek Duszeńko and Henryk Kitowski). When he retired, Duszeńko dedicated his time to sculpting and making jewellery in amber. This was when he was dubbed the “pioneer of amber sculpture”. He lived and worked in Oliwa.

Condition of the object: good

Owner/guardian: Gdańsk Zoological Garden

Author of the entry: Andrzej Zagrobelny