Klara Prillowa

Klara Prillowa (1907–1991), was a Polish sculptor, social activist and amateur ethnographer. She championed the collection and dissemination of folk culture artifacts.

Biography

Youth Klara Prillowa was born to a middle-class family on 11 February 1907, in the "Wilczak" district of then Bromberg. She was the daughter of Maksymilian Gackowski and Wanda née Nowakowska. Klara's father was a craftsman, installing railway signal devices.

The family relocated regularly: after Bydgoszcz, they moved to Miłosław, Środa Wielkopolska, Grodzisk Wielkopolski and Zbąszyń. In the latter, Klara completed a seven-year elementary school.

Later, the family moved to back to Bydgoszcz, where his father started working as a typesetter in one of the local printing houses. In her childhood, Klara already displayed a great artistic talent, being especially interested in sculpture and music. At the age of ten, she began learning to play the violin.

In 1931, she married Paweł Prill, a painter who specialized in church polychromes. He notably collaborated with Polish painter and conservator Wiktor Gosieniecki (1876–1956). After the wedding, Klara moved to her husband's workshop located in Kcynia near Szubin ( southwest of Bydgoszcz).

In 1937, they had a son, named Maksymilian, in line with family traditions (like Klara's father and brother). Five years later, their daughter Jadwiga was born.

Artistic period Klara's creative activity began when she was twenty (1927), before meeting his future husband.

In Kcynia, in the backyard of the family house -located at 4 Ogrodowa street- Klara Prillowa set up a small sculpture workshop, where she had been working eventually for almost 50 years, at the heart of the Pałuki area.

She was interested in the regional Pałuki culture, crafting local figurines and characters. After World War II, her activity attracted Kcynia residents, people interested in art and folk traditions. From 1947, she had been running in Kcynia a sculpture school for children.

During a 3-year spell (1949–1951), Prillowa attended and graduated from an art course for adults in Bydgoszcz. At the end of 1958, a cultural happening opened the exhibition of Pałuki folk art in Kcynia's center: it was the outcome of the collaboration of Klara and Halina Mikułowska, an ethnographer from Toruń. In 1961, she organized a new exhibition, "The Pałuckie Wedding" .

In 1973, she exhibited at the post-competition show "Nicolaus Copernicus in folk sculpture" in Toruń.

In 2017, the Kcynia city Council adopted a resolution awarding Prillowa with the title of "Honorary Citizen" of the city. Additionally, the city Cultural and Library Center in Kcynia has been named after her.

Gallery