Wanda GENTIL-TIPPENHAUER (1899-1965), TATRY

Watercolor, paper, 18.5 x 29 cm,
Signed l.d.: Wanda Getil Tippenhaur [sic].


Wanda GENTIL-TIPPENHAUER (1899-1965).
Born in Haiti, associated with Zakopane. Mountaineer. Animator of Zakopane cultural life, promoter of folk art, organizer of ZPAP exhibitions and local competitions, press critic. She began her artistic studies in Hamburg, and graduated from Karol Tiche in Warsaw (1921). There, at the Polonia Club, she made her debut. since the 1920s, she exhibited her works, primarily views of the Tatra Mountains in watercolor and gouache. She painted on glass and in batik technique. She mapped ski trails for ski guides. She made monumental decorations (St. Catherine's Church in Zgierz, the chapel of Krasicki Castle near Brzeżany, after the war the building of Orbis and the TPPR Hall in Zakopane). She spent the war in Maniewiczy near Kovel, working in a wood products factory and teaching drawing at secret classes in Warsaw. Her pre-war output was lost in the Warsaw Uprising. This is how A. Lewicka summed up her work: "some of Tippenhauer's works bear the marks of a good brush, but there are also some that lack something - something has been left unsaid in them, which prompts reflection - ineptitude or artistic perfidy? impotence or premeditation? lack of creative imagination or helplessness in the face of such perfect beauty as nature?"