Skarpa Warszawska [bound annual 1945-46] (weekly magazine dedicated to the reconstruction of the Capital)

Warsaw 1945-1946/ Biuro Odbudowy Stolicy, Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza ,,Czytelnik/ 33x47,5cm/ bookbinding, linen/ very good condition- pasting up of page seven in issue 33, few minor damages without damage to text. High rarity.

Bound ten issues from 1945 (no.1 appeared in October 1945) and issues one through thirty-three from 1946. Missing from the complete set is the combined issue 27-28 from July 1946.

Not previously listed on onebid!

, "In the fall of 1946, one of the first post-war weeklies, Skarpa Warszawska, closes its less than one-year life. The magazine began publishing on October 21, 1945, with the last issue dated September 22, 1946. From the seventh issue it carried the subtitle "a magazine dedicated to the reconstruction of the capital - the city and the people." The reference to the escarpment carved by the waters of the Vistula, a geological elevation, gave the magazine a certain symbolism, an association with the image and sign of the capital. "Skarpa" was the magazine of the Bureau of Capital Reconstruction, co-edited by the Publishing Cooperative "Czytelnik." The editorial office was located at 31 m. Chocimska Street. 8. The founders of "Skarpa Warszawska" were Wanda Moszczeńska, a medievalist, and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowiczowa, a journalist with extensive social and political activity, editor-in-chief of the pre-war elegant "Arkady."

"Skarpa Warszawska" was an illustrated, always eight-page weekly, printed in large format. It cost 7 zlotys, with time, along with a brick for the construction of the Polish Word House - 10 zlotys. Only once was a deviation made from the accepted format. The combined issue 27/28 of July 22, 1946 was reduced in size, but in the notion of printing at the time, colorful (de facto brown-reddish-brown-green) and cost 20 zlotys. The festive garment was explained by the newly-established state holiday of July 22 and the fact that the rebuilt Fr. Joseph Poniatowski Bridge was put into service. Monographic issues were published three times: No. 10 of 1945 was entirely devoted to the problems of children in rebuilding Warsaw, No. 15 to the Kosciuszko Uprising, and the entire No. 21 of 1946 to the Baths. The first issue of the magazine contained, in addition to a programmatic introductory article, a text written by the Minister of Reconstruction - Michal Kaczorowski, and further articles by: Michał Walicki, Roman Piotrowski, Ewa Szelburg-Zarembina. The text by Grazyna Terlikowska - Wojsznis opened a series of regular items devoted to the problems of urban planning of the city. Each issue closed with the columns "Życie Warszawy dzisiejszej" and "Na Skarpie" - dedicated to current events in the capital, while a significant part of one of the pages was reserved for poetry. Poems will, in fact, accompany subsequent issues. It will feature the poetry of Franciszek Karpinski, Tadeusz Wittlin, Kazimierz Wierzynski, so in the case of the last two - emigrants, but not yet "excommunicated". Most space was devoted to urban issues. Not strictly architecture, but urbanism in the broadest sense. These included texts by Michał Walicki (U podstaw miejistyki współczesnej, 1945 No. 2), Zygmunt Skibniewski (Development of the Great City, 1945 No. 3), Helena and Szymon Syrkus (Pioneers of Social Urbanism, 1946 No. 2), Bohdan Suchodolski or a translated text by Le Corbusier himself on the development of Algiers.

The pages of "Skarpa" showcased projects taken straight from the rallies of Maciej Nowicki, Jan Zachwatowicz, Jerzy Hryniewiecki, Zygmunt Stępiński or Marek Leykam.Architects Maciej Nowicki or Edgar Norwerth were also authors of theoretical texts, how valuable voices for the modern architectural historian. Works of the late Alfred Lauterbach were printed, recognized: Michał Walicki, Zofia Niesiołowska-Rothertowa, Marian Morelowski. In the strong group of young art historians we find the names of later celebrities: Jan Białostocki, Aleksander Gieysztor, Eugeniusz Szwankowski, Stanisław Herbst or Hanna Eychorn-Szwankowska, as well as young, up-and-coming architects, such as the later "tigers": Waclaw Kłyszewski, Jerzy Mokrzynski and Eugeniusz Wierzbicki.

The graphic design of the post-war "Skarpa" was a result of the modest editorial possibilities of the time. The magazine, published in the most difficult, just after the war - had no chance for good paper or legible photographs. The editors practically gave up the latter in favor of drawings, so on heavily yellowed pieces of "Skarpa" we can see works by Maciej Nowicki, Jan Knothe, Stanisław and Wojciech Zamecznik, Jan Cybis or Marek Żuławski. With time, the pages of "Skarpa" were made available to those writing about art or reviews of current exhibitions. Here, for example, Jadwiga Jarnuszkiewiczowa began her career as an art critic. Before the socialist realism came, one could still boldly refer to French post-impressionism, Italian surrealism, admit to familiarity with cubism and abstraction. In just a moment, the collective admiration of brave tractors, the heat of marten furnaces and the fumes of factories will overshadow the manifestation of the non-dogmatic dimension of art. It is hard to resist the reflection that the editorial board, that is, the BOS, tried to create a substitute for a magazine with broad cultural ambitions, open to many areas of city life, to the then very difficult present and history at the same time.'' [ quoted from a text by Dr. Hanna Faryna Paszkiewicz published on https://www.skarpawarszawska.pl/historia-magazynu-skarpa-warszawska.html]