PIOTR KOSZAK (1864-1941)
Master of Hutsul ceramics from Pistyn
Piotr Koszak was a talented potter from Pokuttya, a region of Carpathian Hutsulshchyna on the former eastern border of the Second Polish Republic. He was born in 1864 in the village of Moskalówka near Kosovo in Pokuttya. He graduated from the prestigious National Pottery School in Kolomyia, which gave him a solid professional foundation. After school, he settled in Pistyń (now Ukraine), which at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was the main centre of artistic pottery in Pokuttya. He stood out among the numerous potters from Pistyń – over time, he gained fame as the best potter in the entire Pokuttya region in the 1920s and 1930s.
Koszak quickly gained recognition for his products. He won awards at important arts and crafts exhibitions: among others, he received a silver medal at the General National Exhibition in Lviv in 1894, and was also honoured with a silver medal at the Home Industry Exhibition in Kolomyia in 1912. Numerous awards motivated him to modernise his workshop and increase the scale of production. He specialised in traditional Pokuttya semi-majolica ceramics – his products included richly patterned stove tiles and painted functional ceramics: bowls, plates, jugs, flasks and even three-armed candlesticks called ‘trijcia’. This technology involved covering the moulds with white clay (engobe), engraving the pattern with a needle, then covering the resulting contours and fields with glazes in shades of green, brown and yellow (sometimes with the addition of cobalt) and firing again – this is a characteristic technique of Hutsul semi-majolica. Koszak's ornamentation included rich floral and geometric patterns, as well as figurative scenes with people and animals, reflecting the everyday life of the Hutsuls.
Piotr Koszak was assisted in running the pottery workshop by his wife Emilia, who also mastered the potter's craft and became famous for her exquisite Baroque-style decorative designs. From the 1920s, his stepson Kazimierz Woźniak, Emilia's son from her first marriage, was also a valuable collaborator, whom Piotr trained in the profession. From 1925, at the age of 16, young Kazimierz was already learning the trade in his stepfather's workshop in Pistyń. Piotr Koszak passed on to him all his knowledge and the pottery traditions of Pokucie, which Kazimierz continued after the war. Piotr himself worked in his studio almost until the end of his life – he died in Pistyń during World War II (1941).
Foreign studies present Piotr Koszak (Ukrainian: Petro Koshak) as one of the most outstanding masters of Hutsul artistic ceramics at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was born in 1864 in Moskaliwka near Kosovo (then Austria, today Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast in Ukraine). He was the son of a potter and struggled with poverty from an early age – orphaned at the age of 9, he took on various jobs (shepherding, military service). He settled in Pistyń around 1888, where he started a family and began making traditional pots following his father's example. Soon, however, he decided to develop his skills – he studied ceramic designs from a nearby centre in Kosovo and, between 1894 and 1897, attended the Kolomyia Pottery School, which he graduated from as one of the best students. As a reward, he received a scholarship, which he used to build his own kiln and set up a workshop. Thanks to this, by the end of the 19th century, he had developed an original style combining traditional Hutsul motifs with innovative forms.
Piotr Koszak quickly gained fame outside the Hutsul region. Ukrainian sources emphasise that as early as 1894, the well-known ethnographer Wolodymyr Szuchewycz invited him to participate in the Galician National Exhibition in Lviv, where Koszak's works gained recognition and were illustrated in Szuchewycz's monumental monograph ‘Huculszczyzna’ (The Hutsul Region). Koszak regularly presented his works at industrial and arts and crafts exhibitions: he participated, among others, in the Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition in Kosovo (1904) and the Home Industry Exhibition in Kolomyia (1912). At the latter exhibition, he won the highest distinction – a gold medal for his products. As a recognised master, he also represented the art of the Hutsuls on the international stage – his works were shown at World Exhibitions in Paris (1937) and New York (1939). Piotr (Petro) Koszak's ceramics – decorated tiles, painted plates, jugs, decorative items – found their way into museum and private collections in various countries. He is considered to be both a continuator and a reformer of the classical traditions of 19th-century Hutsul potters, who enriched the decorative techniques of Pistyn and introduced new shapes and glazes to the repertoire of local ceramics.
Foreign sources also supplement information about Koszak's family life. They confirm that his wife Emilia actively helped him in his work – researcher Krystyna Winnicka from the Historical Museum in Sanok noted that the whole family was involved in pottery, and Emilia's products were characterised by ‘beautifully drawn’ decorations. Piotr taught his craft to his adopted son, Kazimierz Woźniak, who also became a respected master of artistic ceramics. Piotr Koszak remained active until the end of his life – he died in Pistyń in 1940 or 1941 (different sources give different dates), leaving behind a rich cultural heritage of the Hutsul region.