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. She then returned to her studio.
This period matches her first meeting with Maria Znamierowska-Prüfferowa (1898–1990), an ethnographer, professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and founder of the Ethnographic Museum of Toruń.
Maria was the first to consider with interest Klara's work and make her sculptures known within the ethnographic community. In 1953, they both went to the Pomeranian Museum in Toruń to discover the permanent exhibition of folk art in northern Poland. A year later, they visited the "Main Agriculture Exhibition" set Lublin, which had an influence on Klara's work.
Prillowa was also influenced by Anna Jachnina (1914–1996), a Polish radio reporter and editor of Radio PiK (Polskie Radio Pomorza i Kujaw -Polish Radio of Kujawy, Pomeranian Voivodeship), the local antenna of the national Polskie Radio.
In her broadcasts, Anna was collecting materials about the cultural life in villages and reporting old rituals and folk customs. Klara immediately subscribed to this scheme: their collaboration lasted for 30 years, contributing to the realisation of more than 300 programs about the customs, culture, traditions and music of Pałuki origin.
In nearly 50 years, it is estimated she produced thousands of figurines.
Social and didactic works
Klara Prillowa was interested in local folklore. She spent a lot of time collecting elements of folk culture from Pałuki region (songs and legends). Hiking around the area, she gathered material and non-material pieces of folklore. Furthermore, she wrote down melodies and learned old dances.
Around 1952, she became a member of the "Polish Ethnological Society": she then founded the "Circle of Pałuki Lovers in Kcynia" ().
Her studio was often the place of meetings with performers (dancing and singing), storytellers recollecting old weddings, traditional customs and rituals. In 1953 Klara founded Pałuki, a regional song and dance ensemble, gathering three generations of people. The set-up of this band required to design regional embroidery-and-lace costumes and get ancient traditional music instruments. The group became known among the folk bands of northern Poland, being regularly invited to various regional and national events and festivals.
