23 MAY. 2024 · Julia Keilowa designed everyday objects in the Art Déco style. Her artistic education and sculptural experience allowed her to develop her own distinctive style. Thanks to the popularity of plating, a technique of covering non-precious metal products with a thin layer of silver or gold, her designs entered the salons of the Second Republic of Poland, earning Keilowa fame and recognition. Attempts to imitate her style were made as early as the 1930s, there were even forgeries of her products, which testifies to the significance of Keilowa’s design and to her status. Today, Keilowa’s metalwork belongs to the canon of masterpieces of Polish design, and her works are sought after in the collectors’ market as coveted additions to both public and private art collections. Julia Keilowa. Designer exhibition is the most extensive presentation of her work to date, encompassing handcrafted unique items and sculptural works. Find out more about the exhibition: https://muzeumwarszawy.pl/en/wystawa/julia-keilowa-designer/

23 MAY. 2024 · Art déco was a popular style in the Europe and America of the 1920s and 1930s. It could be seen in architecture, sculpture, painting and graphic art, as well as in utalitarian art. It made reference to the avant-garde artistic conceptions of the cubists, orfists, expressionists and futurists. It accentuated construction, expounded the values of creativity, perfection in realisation, and the functionality of design. It was characterised by a love of geometry and colouristic contrasts, it was inspired by movement and dynamics, characterising the exuberant tempo of changes in life style. Those who created items in the style of Art Déco wanted to reconcile luxury and refined elegance with the comfort and convenience of the practicality and accessibility of their designs. They boldly utilised new technologies and materials. They employed gold, platinum and precious stones, exotic types of wood, as well as artificial materials such as bakelite, ebonite or galalith (erinoid), chromed and nickle-plated metals. The female designers of this epoch had to give shape to their inventuons which entered into contemporary life such as cars and transatlantic liners, gas stoves, radio aerials or electric kettles.

23 MAY. 2024 · In the first decades of the twentieth-century increasing numbers of women were profesionally involved in artistic production. It is here important to emphasize particulary their role in the process of the emancipation of design. Women actively engaged in the activities of the artistic circles and societies that set the tone for thr art of the day such as Parisian bohemianism, the Vienna Workshops or the local Cracow Workshops. The female artists connected with these circles did not usually possess a formal academic education. Their abilities were the result ofindividual experiences, home instruction, education at private workshops or participation in courses of various kinds. The female designers of this pioneering generation often operated within sections culturally ascribed to women such as fabrics or ceramics. Often they produced unique individual pieced of work, although they would also cooperate with industry. Their artistic and professional success came from the fusion of talent, determination and from being consequential in their undertakings. From today's perspective their achievements often appear key to the shaping of contemporary perceptions of design. Find out more about the exhibition: https://muzeumwarszawy.pl/en/wystawa/julia-keilowa-designer/

23 MAY. 2024 · Following the First World War female designers increasingly moved away from those areas of artistic activity traditionally deemed female work. Activities considered to be unwomanly included goldsmithery and artistic working generally in metals. These occupations, and here as a result of guild practices and regulations, had for a long time been strictly male preserves. As a result of the changes in assumptions and social convictions hastened by the process of emancipation particularly regarding girls education such restrictions started to loosen. During the inter-war years female designers of metal works started to enter producion plants armed with diplomas from artistic institutions, thanks to which design started to become for them their profession and not merely a life passion. The harbinger of their industrial activities was to be the increase in the design brief given to women. However, in the 1930s to have female decorative metal work designers was still a novelty, with their numbers being small. Amongst these rarities of the day one may enumerate exceptionally talented female designers such as Christa Ehrlich, Sylvia Stave and Julia Keilowa. Find out more about the exhibition: https://muzeumwarszawy.pl/en/wystawa/julia-keilowa-designer/

23 MAY. 2024 · Julia Keil, née Ringel (1902-1942) was a Polish sculptor and decorative metal designer. She was born in Stryj into a Jewish family. She attended secondary school in Lviv and Vienna. In 1922 she married Ignacy Keil. In 1924 the family settled in Warsaw. A year later Keilowa started her studies at the State School of Fine Arts at the Faculty of Sculpture. From 1932 she cooperated with the Warsaw silver and gold plate company Fraget, and subsequently with the plants of Norblin and Henneberg Brothers. Her designs in the style of Art Déco were quickly to gain the acknowledgement of critics and clients. In 1933 she founded a decorative metal workshop. For the years 1932-1939 she participated in the artistic life of the Polish capital, systematically displaying sculptures and everyday objects at collective exhibitions. In 1937 at the international exhibition in Paris she won a gold for her plate design for Fraget. In 1938 she held her own solo exhibition of plate metal work. Keilowa was famed within circles of friends and artists for her energy and strenght, she was full of initiatives and ideas. In 1939 she escaped to Lviv where she ran a porcelain workshop. She returned to Warsaw in 1941 and hid from the Germans beyond the ghetto proper.. In 1942 (1943, according to family accounts), she was murdered by the Gestapo. Find out more about the exhibition: https://muzeumwarszawy.pl/en/wystawa/julia-keilowa-designer/

23 MAY. 2024 · The objects designed by Julia Keilowa distinguish themselves through their: distinctive style, balanced composition based upon mathematical proportions, strive for harmony, rhytmicality and elegance. The artist keenly compiled basic geometric shapes with each other: cones, cylinders, spheres, prisms. Their layout was clear and precisely matched and balanced. Despite the marked submergence in geometry the objects are not angular. The sharp forms are softened by ovality, arches and crescent-shaped curves. Keilowa's designs are characterised by a marked awareness of shapes and expanse. Crucial is the role played by well thought through openwork designs accentuating the coherent mass, which appear in the handles of the pieces. The arists skilfully utilised light. Glint, reflections and the contrasting shades are characteristic features of silvered metal. Keilowa was able to competently enhance form. The effect of movement would be brought about, for example, by assymetrical handles or offset breaks. Keilowa's style quickly gained recognition amongst clients and critics. Already in the 1930s were to appear falsifications and imitations of some of her designs. Find out more about the exhibition: https://muzeumwarszawy.pl/en/wystawa/julia-keilowa-designer/

23 MAY. 2024 · We perceive the life of Julia Keilowa from the present-day perspective of being an example of the professional emancipation of women and design. In the 1930s she was young artist, a professional realizing her ambitions in the field of industrial design. For the companies with which she cooperated her designs constituted a breath of modernity, elegance and artistic chic. For she was shown at prestigious exhibitions, with care being taken about their promoted image. Similarily were to unfold the artistic and professional careers of Christa Ehrlich and Sylvia Stave. These designers were almost peers. Each had the possibility to study at an institution implementing a programme in modern design. The wave of changes allowed them to develop their talent in this "unfemale" field, one perceived in the 19th century as being not even entirely artistic. Characteristic for the designers was also the period of being forgotten in the post-Second World War period. A renewed openness to and awareness of the works of Keilowa, Ehrlich or Stave was to only come with the turn of the 21st century. This being the result of an intertwining of several factors: a growth in the significance of design, a renewed interest in Art Déco as a style, as well as the emancipation current initiating research into the creativity of women. Find out more about the exhibition: https://muzeumwarszawy.pl/en/wystawa/julia-keilowa-designer/

23 MAY. 2024 · In the 1930s, Julia Keilowa was not the only one to design for plating and metalwork companies. We know that there were other artists designing for them, but we don’t know their names, as they did not make as much effort as Keilowa to put their work on the market signed with their names. This is why at the exhibition we are displaying objects of very good quality, evidently designed in the 1930s, whose creators are mostly unknown to us. We present over a dozen metalwork items that in all probability could be linked to Keilowa, because the style of these pieces indicates her hand, but we cannot be completely certain these are her works. Find out more about the exhibition: https://muzeumwarszawy.pl/en/wystawa/julia-keilowa-designer/

23 MAY. 2024 · Richer in historical knowledge on design, we propose one checks how the creation of utalitarian art looks at present and how apprentices are prepared for work in this field. We invited students of Warsaw institutes of tertiary education to cooperate - The Watsaw Academy of Fine Arts (AFA) and the School of Form. We wished to know how they perceived design and how they viewed themselves performing this profession in the future. The effect of this undertaking being over 30 modern design solutions, the inspiration for which were the achievements of Julia Keilowa.  Students from the Ceramic Design Workshop of Warsaw AFA, who worked under the instruction of Bartosz Mejor, presented their works. The School of Form were represented by two groups of young creators studying the specializations of industrial design, supported by Małgorzata Malinowska and Sara Boś, as well as domestic design from the workshop run by Bartosz Mucha and Aleksandra Kędziorek. Find out more about the exhibition: https://muzeumwarszawy.pl/en/wystawa/julia-keilowa-designer/