an inventory and documentary of art environments in Europe created by non-professionals
May 09, 2025
Szczepan Mucha, Udekorowane wnętrze i zewnętrze / Decorated interior and exterior
all images courtesy of Andrzej Kwasiborski and Znalezienie
The row of wooden sculptures in the image above was for many years part of an art environment in a small village in the Sieradz region of Poland.
The site had an outdoor space enclosed by a series of interconnected wooden sculptures and an interior decorated with sculptures, a coherent creation that is now part of the regional ethnographic museum.
Life and works
This art environment was created by Szczepan Mucha (1908--1983), who was born in the Polish village of Stępień.
Once grown up, he worked first as a woodcutter and later as a forest ranger's assistant. He lived in the small hamlet of Szale near Klonoa, in a farm-like house with a workshop and a large outdoor area.
While living there he had a painful experience that affected the way he dealt with the world. He was accused by neighbors of stealing wood, which led to an ordeal in which he was convicted and had to spend a time in prison.
Szczepan Mucha already liked to be alone and preferred working in the forest to being in the company of people, but after this profound experience he limited his contact with the outside world to a minimum
Later in life, in in the late 1950s when he was in his early 50s, he started making sculptures.
The surrounding images give an impression of the nature of his creations.
Working with simple tools such as a saw, an axe, a knife and a self-made chisel, he mainly made small-scale depictions in dark colours, portraying all kinds of people.
In 1972 his work was discovered by Zofia Neymanowa, an art historian and museologist of the same generation as Mucha and director of a museum in Sieradz, the capital of the department where Mucha lived.
The meeting with Zofia led to Mucha's development in the further 1970s into a valued folk artist. The recognition as an artist that Mucha received gave him great satisfaction and was proof to him that he was not the bad man as seen by his neighbors.
He now also went out, took part in competitions and exhibitions and sold his works to museums and private collections.
A decorated fencing in the exterior
A special element of Mucha's art environment is the way in which the fencing of the outdoor space has taken shape.
The images below show that the top of each of the vertical planks that form the enclosure, has the shape of a human head.
It is not difficult to see that such a palisade also expresses a deep separation between Mucha's world and that of his unfriendly neighbours.
The period in which Szczepan Mucha actively came out with his creative work and was a valued non-professional artist was between 1972 and 1982.
He died in 1983.
In the museum world of the Polish city of Sieradz, interest had already arisen in safeguarding the artistic legacy of Szczepan Muscha.
This idea was actually realized when an open-air museum was opened in the 1980s and between 1987 and 1991 the interior of Mucha's house and the processed planks of the fence of the outdoor area, were either rebuilt in or moved to the museum.
Documenation
* Entry on Facebook by Andrzej Kwasiborski, with a variety of photos
* Article on Polish website Pola Neis, with a variety of photos
* Video by Edward Konieczvy (2012, YouTube, 5'47") that shows footage of a visit to the open-air museum by members of the Department of Tourism and Ecology of the University of the Third Age in Ostrów, Poland
Szczepan Mucha
Decorated interior and exterior
Village of Szale, dept Sieradz, region Lodz, Poland
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