Bogna Krasnodębska-Gardowska

Polish female artist Bogna Krasnodębska-Gardowska specialized in printmaking (lithographs and woodcut especially) and drawing. She studied at the State Pedagogical Courses for Teachers of Drawing in Warszawa and 1923-30 at the School of Fine Art under Władysław Skoczylas. Initially she formed mainly colored woodcuts on religious themes, genre and landscape paintings and was inspired by folk art.

Krasnodębska-Gardowska later taught at the School of Crafts and Applied Arts in Warszawa (1933-35) and the Technical University in Krakow (1948-66). She was a member of the Ryt (Association of Polish Graphic Artists) (1925-39) and after the war co-founder of their successor, Grupa 9 Grafików (1947-66). During the German occupation in World War II, she gave drawing lessons in hiding and worked as a cook in the artists’ kitchen. She lived in Krakow beginning in 1947.In the 1950s, she briefly followed the principles of Socialist realism but then returned to abstract representations with associative allusions. Her husband was painter and graphic artist Ludwik Gardowski (1890-1965). For the 1936 art competitions, she submitted a woodcut with the title Ślizgawka (literally Skating rink, in the catalog just Skating).