History of Skarpa Warszawska Magazine

WARSAW SKARPA (1945 - 1946)

 

In the fall of 1946, one of the first post-war weeklies, "Skarpa Warszawska", closes its life of less than a year. The magazine began to be published on October 21, 1945, the last issue was published on September 22, 1946. and man." The reference to the escarpment carved by the waters of the Vistula, a geological elevation, gave the letter a certain symbolism, association with the image and sign of the capital. "Skarpa" was a magazine of the Capital Reconstruction Office, co-edited by the "Czytelnik" Publishing Cooperative. The editorial office was located at ul. Chocimska 31 m. 8. The founders of "Skarpa Warszawskie" were: medievalist Wanda Moszczeńska and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowiczowa, a journalist with extensive social and political activities, editor-in-chief of the elegant pre-war "Arkady".

"Skarpa Warszawska" was an illustrated, always eight-page weekly, printed in a large format. It cost PLN 7, with time, including a brick for the construction of the Dom Słowa Polskiego - PLN 10. Only once was a deviation from the adopted format. July 1946, it was reduced in size, but in the sense of the printing industry at that time, it was colorful (in fact brown-reddish-dirty green) and cost PLN 20. The festive robe was explained by the newly established state holiday on July 22 and the fact that the rebuilt Józef Poniatowski Bridge was commissioned. monographic issues were published: No. 10 from 1945 was entirely devoted to the problems of children in rebuilding Warsaw, No. 15 to the Kościuszko Uprising, and the entirety of No. 21 from 1946 to the Łazienki Park. – Michał Kaczorowski, and then articles by: Michał Walicki, Roman Piotrowski, Ewa Szelburg-Zarembina Grażyna Terlikowska's text - Wojsznis opened a series of regular items devoted to the problems of city planning. Each issue closed with the columns "Życie Warszawy" and "Na Skarpie" - devoted to current events in the capital, and a significant part of one page was reserved for poetry. The poems will accompany the next numbers. Its pages will include poems by Franciszek Karpiński, Tadeusz Wittlin, and Kazimierz Wierzyński, i.e. in the case of the last two - emigrants, but not yet subject to "excommunication". Most space was devoted to urban issues. Not strictly architecture, but urban planning in the broad sense. texts by Michał Walicki (Understanding Modern Urban Planning, 1945 No. 2), Zygmunt Skibniewski (Development of a Great City, 1945 No. 3), Helena and Szymon Syrkus (Pioneers of Social Urbanism, 1946 No. 2), Bohdan Suchodolski or Le Corbusier's own translated text on development Algiers.

"Skarpa" presented projects taken straight from tights by Maciej Nowicki, Jan Zachwatowicz, Jerzy Hryniewiecki, Zygmunt Stępiński or Marek Leykam. Architects: Maciej Nowicki and Edgar Norwerth were also authors of theoretical texts, very valuable voices for a contemporary historian of architecture. already recognized: Michał Walicki, Zofia Niesiołowska-Rothertowa, Marian Morelowski.In a strong team of young art historians we find the names of later celebrities: Jan Białostocki, Aleksander Gieysztor, Eugeniusz Szwankowski, Stanisław Herbst and Hanna Eychorn-Szwankowska, as well as young in the profession of architects, such as the later "tigers": Wacław Kłyszewski, Jerzy Mokrzyński and Eugeniusz Wierzbicki.

The graphic design of the post-war "Skarpa" was the result of the then modest editorial capabilities. The magazine, published in the most difficult period, just after the war, had no chance for good paper or legible photographs. "Skarpy" we can see the works of Maciej Nowicki, Jan Knothe, Stanisław and Wojciech Zamecznik, Jan Cybis and Marek Żuławski. With time, the pages of "Skarpy" were made available to those writing about art or reviews of current exhibitions. It was here, for example, that Jadwiga Jarnuszkiewiczowa began her career as an art critic. In just a moment, collective admiration for the brave tractor profits, the heat of open-hearth furnaces and the smoke of factories will overshadow the manifestation of a non-dogmatic dimension of art. areas of the life of the city, to the then, very difficult present and history at the same time.

Dr. Hanna Faryna-Paszkiewicz – art historian, graduate of the University of Warsaw. In the years 1969-2009, he worked at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Author of books on art and culture of the interwar period. He lectures on the history of Polish architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Varsovian for generations, on the sword and on the distaff side.

 

WARSAW SKARPA (2012 - )

 

"We present to you the first - after a 64-year break - issue of the revived "Skarpa Warszawskie". Dr. Hanna Faryna-Paszkiewicz talks about the short but important history of the first "Skarpa" for the city. Does the new "Skarpa" refer to its predecessor? Yes and no. Yes, because we share respect for those achievements, for the effort undertaken in conditions unimaginable today. No, because the new chapter of "Skarpa Warszawskie" will be written differently. We hope that you will be with us and help us in creating this new-old magazine. We thank you for your good and critical words as well."

Danuta Szmit-Zawierucha , the editor-in-chief, wrote in the editorial for the first issue of Skarpa Warszawska.