Polish folk sculptor of the interwar period, woodcarver.
At the outset, it is necessary to clarify the spelling of the name of the hero of the following text. Well, at his baptism, the Wawro - for this is the family name of the sculptor - gave their son the name Andrzej (Andrew). When the writer, Emil Zegadłowicz discovered the talent of the folk artist he spread the familiar dialect sound of his name. And so Andrzej Wawro became Jędrzej Wowro. With such dignity the artist appears in literature, also in the following text the author uses his name popularized by Mr. Zegadłowicz.
Andrzej Wawro was born on November 13, 1864 in Gorzeń Dolny near Wadowice to a peasant family of Jan and Katarzyna Wawro. His father, a farmer, served as Gorzeń's alderman for more than a dozen years. The family was large - Jędrzej had two sisters and six brothers. From an early age, he had to work hard on the farm of his father, who was not averse to liquor, which prevented him from receiving schooling and he remained illiterate for the rest of his life. In 1881, he left the family home and began working for a living. He found occupation in Silesia, where he worked as a miner in the coal mines of Ostrava and Karviná. In the latter, however, he suffered a serious accident - a heart attack occurred while working underground, Wowro was buried and miraculously saved.
The hardships of the job, and above all the injuries sustained from the mine sidewalks, caused him to devote himself more and more to his lifelong passion - wood carving.
Wowro has had a knack for carving with a folding buck, bought by his mother at a fair in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, since childhood. While grazing geese and cattle, to the delight of other Gorzeń children, he would carve dolls, pacifiers and other toys and, above all, his favorite birds, which would become his "trademark," accompanying most of his later sculptures. Over the years, however, his artistic interests took a different direction - he began carving figurines of saints. In 1880, his Sorrowful Christ stood in a modest domestic room. He was creatively inspired by Sunday sermons, passion mysteries, celebrations accompanying indulgences and the lives of saints read to him by his wife Maria. He did not pay special attention to detail. His saints were not smoothed and clearly show the 'chiseling' so characteristic of Jędrzej.
The interwar period was a time of great interest in folk art, including in Wadowice, where Wowro's woodcarving works drew the attention of sculptor Wincenty Bałys and the headmistress of the private Michalina Mościcka Female Junior High School, Dr. Zofia Szybalska, among others. Wowro's saints could be purchased, among other things, at Roman Waligórski's trafice on the Wadowice Market Square.
One day in 1923, the artist's wife, Marianna, went to the Gorzeń mansion of Zegadłowicz, wanting to sell him some of her husband's works. This was a turning point in the life of the infirm sacristan - the moment when he was 'discovered' by the famous writer.
Not much earlier, in 1921 Emil Zegadłowicz, together with Jan Nepomucen Miller and Edward Kozikowski, founded the 'Czartak. A congregation of poets in the Beskid', as this group of artists was often referred to, manifested their fascination with the Beskid and its people, regionalism and folklore in the broadest sense. Also clustered around Zegadłowicz were visual artists Jan Piotr Hrynkowski, Jerzy Hulewicz and Wadowice residents Franciszek Suknarowski and Wincenty Bałys. For both the host and all the guests of Gorzeń manor, Jedrzej Wowro was a great artistic inspiration. Fascinated by the figure of the woodcarver, Zegadłowicz wrote 'Ballad of Wowro, Beskid's gadabout and saint, about God the true God and Christ the Sorrowful' sculpting the Beskid patron, which was published by Franciszek Foltin's printing house in Wadowice. 'Powsinoga Beskidzki' [Beskid's gadabout], whose contacts with the writer soon turned into a friendship, was not only a folk sculptor but also an exceptional storyteller, telling both true and fictionalized stories. These have been preserved to this day thanks to Emil Zegadłowicz, Edward Kozikowski and Tadeusz Seweryn, who meticulously wrote down his 'tales'.
The figure and work of Jędrzej Wowro, a woodcarver and 'Beskid poet' also inspired the young Karol Wojtyła - then a budding poet, so sensitive to the beauty of Beskid hills.
Wowro's main patron was undoubtedly Zegadłowicz. It was thanks to him that Jędrzej's financial situation improved - the writer bought saints, and also persuaded his guests to buy them. Wowro began to carve on commission. He even made an exception in the subject matter of his work for junior high school professor Teofil Klima, carving figurines of ordinary people in traditional peasant costumes for the collector.
The first (and largest) collection of woodcarver's figurines was created in the poet's Gorzeń manor - Zegadłowicz's 'figurine house' counted nearly a hundred of Jędrzej's works. Thanks to the writer, the figurines were presented at the General National Exhibition in Poznań (PeWuKa, 1929) as well as in France (World Exhibition in Paris), Germany, Switzerland and the USA. Museums in Kraków, Bochnia, Katowice, Warszawa and Lódż were also interested in Jędrzej's work. At Zegadłowicz's request, the woodcarver made 20 woodcuts, which appeared in print in Poznań in 1938 as 'Piecątki Beskidzkie, [Beskid's Stovecases].
A great event in Wowro's life was a trip to the harvest festival in Spała in 1935. There he met with President Ignacy Moscicki and presented a sculpture of the Sorrowful Christ, commissioned by MP Wincenty Hyla.
The hardships of life and hard physical work in the mines kept on making their presence known. From 1924 onward, Andrzej Wawro was practically constantly ill, the pain twice leading him to suicide attempts. He died on November 21, 1937 in his hometown of Gorzeń Dolny, and was buried in the Wadowice parish cemetery.
Much of the work of the 'beskid's gadabout' was destroyed and dispersed. The Gorzeń collection of saints was lost when Zegadłowicz's mansion was seized by the Germans and the writer's collection and library were taken away.
Nowadays, Wowra's sculptures are in the Muzeum Etnograficzne im. S.Udzieli w Krakowie, the Muzeum im. Stanisława Fischera w Bochni, the Muzeum Śląskim w Katowicach, the Państwowym Muzeum Etnograficznym w Warszawie, the Muzeum Miejskim w Wadowicach, the Muzeum Miejskie Suchej Beskidzkiej and in private collections.