Dimensions: 9 x 14 x 5 cm
signed and described on the base: 'Turnip | Isaiah | Reda'.
Biography
Isaiah Rzepa was a native of Reda. He was a respected folk artist associated with the Kashubian region. He is called the last Reda folk sculptor.
After graduating from elementary school, he worked in his father's carpentry shop, where he learned the ways of woodworking. Already at that time his interest in the art of sculpture was manifesting itself - at that time he made decorated furniture and figures for the church in Leba.
During World War II, he took part in the defense of Hel, was taken prisoner and stayed in German camps until 1945. After returning to his native Pomerania, he worked at a shipyard in Gdynia, only occasionally returning to sculpting.
Again, the artist actually began creating only after he retired. During this period he sculpted a lot, taking up a variety of subjects, both secular and religious: he depicted saints, fishermen, villagers and animals, among which he was most fond of birds. He was also eager to make wooden toys for children. Isaiah Repa covered his meticulously detailed sculptures with colorful but realistic polychrome, which, importantly, distinguishes the artist's art from other Kashubian folk sculptors. Isaiah Rzepa was a member of the Association of Folk Artists, and worked with Cepelia in Sopot.
For the first time Isaiah Rzepa showed his works in 1954 at the exhibition "Folk Art of Gdansk Province" in Gdansk. Shortly thereafter - in 1959 - he received the first prize in the "Folk Art Souvenir" competition in Gdansk. In the following years, he received many first prizes (e.g., "Fisherman in Folk Sculpture" (1980), "Contemporary Folk Art of Kashubia" (1985)) and significant awards, not only in the field of plastic art, including the prestigious Oskar Kolberg Award (1986), the Golden Cross of Merit, the Medal for the Defense of Hel or the Award of the Governor and the Provincial Department of Culture and Art. The artist's works have also been shown abroad, such as in England, Hungary and Finland. Isaiah Rzepa's sculptures are in the collections of the Ethnographic Museum in Cracow, the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, the Ethnographic Museum in Gdansk, the District Museum in Torun, the Florian Ceynowa Museum of Puck Land in Puck, among others. A permanent exhibition of the artist's works is presented at the Municipal Public Library in Reda.
