Vladislav BERUS, St. Veronica, 2009

wood; 30 cm
engraved on bottom: W.BERUS 09 / St. Veronica

Wladyslaw Berus was born in Mroczkow on March 22, 1935. His father was engaged in farming on the family farm, and none of his closest or further relatives showed any inclination toward art. Vladislav, too, chose a technical occupation - he took a job at the nearby brickyard in Soltykovo, where he was a ceramic product firer. Having access to good material and working, as he put it, "on the kiln" - he made several pots for himself. Since they turned out to be successful, he made another, which he sold to his colleagues at work. And so it began...

Quickly there were takers for more pots, while Mr. Wladislaw decided to explore further secrets of the craft on his own, experimenting with glaze. There were more and more customers, the products appealed to them and at some point, around 1975, Wladyslaw Berus also took up ceramic sculpture. He entered a regional competition of folk sacred art organized by the Civitas Christiana association in Kielce. Since then, he has participated annually, collecting honors and awards. He also decided to participate in a national competition - in 1986, the Majdanek Museum hosted an exhibition of folk art on the theme "Against the War," where he received an acclaimed honorable mention for his ceramic sculptures.

On his farm in Mroczkowo, in a small yard, he added a tiny studio made of hollow blocks to a brick outbuilding, with a wood-fired kiln for firing ceramics. Then, around 1990, Wladyslaw Berus' second passion - wood carving - manifested itself. The first was the making of a crucifix with the Crucified Christ for the local parish church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which was just being built, and Berus donated a second such cross to Pastor Antoni Kochanowski for the parsonage. Later still for the church he carved the Sorrowful Christ. Although, as he recalls, his sculpting debut at the Civitas Christiana competition was not a success, and he was even advised against wood - "you're good at ceramics," he was told by the jury - he continued to try sculpting. "This is what guided me, that there are fewer buyers for clay, once a year only a fair in Ilza and then it's not idle, because they give something for just participating, and then, it's worse to make clay, more difficult. A person makes a lot of money and can fail in the kiln. Wood is more reliable."

Berus' works mainly depict figures of saints, animals and birds. They have recognizable, characteristically worked details with clear yet stylized markings of anatomical forms. Fine engravings are flanked by deep, quick cuts. The sculptures are mostly painted or underpainted, and here the lines or mottling on the wood, white, gray or in a more pronounced color, are characteristic.

Today, the subject matter of his works is extremely rich. Mr. Wladyslaw is most comfortable in themes with religious and ritual content, but he also produces toys from clay and wood. The sculptures of Wladyslaw Berus are popular at exhibitions, festivals and folk art fairs not only in the Swietokrzyskie region, and are highly rated and awarded. Before 2000, he joined the Association of Folk Artists. His saints, angels and birds are in, among others, the National Museum in Kielce and the Museum of Toymaking, the Museum of the Kielce Village, the Radom Village Museum. They are also "scattered around the world, as one happens to come across," - he reports. For example, a collector and gallery owner in San Francisco ("how he found me here, I don't know") bought two wooden hawks.

A large gray folder full of diplomas, which Mr. Berus eagerly displays, is a complete archive of his activities. So let's cite some of the more significant events:

1989 - first prize in ceramics in the 16th Competition of Contemporary Folk Sacred Art in Kielce
1993 - participation in the exhibition "Blessed Kinga - princess and nun" in Stary Sacz, three glazed ceramic sculptures
1995 - special award of the director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Provincial Office in Kielce and the first prize in the XXII Competition of Folk Religious Art, in the category of ceramics
1997 - honorable mention in the category of ceramic sculpture in the competition "St. Adalbert" organized by the Museum of the First Piasts in Lednica
1997 - participation in the competition "Birds - birds - birds" organized by the Foundation "Cepelia" and the National Artistic and Ethnographic Commission in Cracow
1999 - participation in a nationwide competition on the theme "John Paul II"
2000 - honorary special award in the competition for the millennium Christmas crib in Gdansk, received for "workshop, strength of artistic expression, formal invention"
2001 - distinction of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in the competition "Life and work of Father Cardinal Wyszynski in folk art" organized by STL in Radom
2001 - participation in the II competition for folk sculpture "Angels, devils, birds and musicians"
2002 - honorable mention in the sculpture competition "All Saints" in Lodz
2006 - first place in the competition "Save the crumbs of tradition" organized by WDK in Kielce.
Most recently, in October 2009, Wladyslaw Berus submitted works to three competitions simultaneously: traditionally to Civitas Christiana, to the Provincial House of Culture in Kielce and to the national competition "Pamiątka z Polski" organized by the Polish Arts and Crafts Foundation "Cepelia". For the latter, he prepared three proposals: a ceramic whistling white cockerel, a similar Baba Yaga, bisque with sparing color accents on a striped stocking, and a wooden bird with spread wings. (Radom Village Museum)