Kurpie paper cutouts () are decorations cut out of paper with scissors, characteristic of the folk art of the Kurpie people of Puszcza Zielona and Puszcza Biała. In March 2020, the paper cutting tradition of Puszcza Zielona was entered into the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage as "Kurpie paper cutting from Puszcza Zielona".
The paper cutout first appeared in the homes of the and Kurpie Białe people in the 19th century as a decorative element. From the beginning of the 20th century, it began to gain popularity in urban circles, which particularly influenced the development of forms in Puszcza Zielona. The art was revived after World War II, partly thanks to the support of the Cepelia cooperative. Its collapse ended the period of institutional state support for this form of folk art, which was of particular importance for Puszcza Biała, where paper cutting disappeared. In Puszcza Zielona, the art form has survived uninterrupted thanks to the support of museums and the interest of audiences during regional events. Today, a revival of paper cutting can be observed in Puszcza Biała.
Cutouts from Puszcza Biała and Puszcza Zielona are preserved in many museums in the region and throughout Poland. They include stars, lilies (leluje), forests, sacramental bread (hostyje), figurative cutouts characteristic of Kurpie Zielone and Kurpie Białe, potted plants (zielka), and ribbons. Kurpie paper cutout artists have received and continue to receive recognition at the local, national, and international levels.
Kurpie paper cutouts are used on postcards, the covers of publications, as motifs on souvenirs, and as decorations in churches, on vestments, welcome signs, and monuments, among others. This is especially evident in Puszcza Zielona, where paper cutouts are one of the region's symbols. Today, they are often used in ethno-design.
Paper cutouts from Puszcza Biała
History
Two paper cutting centers developed in Puszcza Biała in the villages of Dąbrowa and Pniewo. According to , both Puszcza Biała and Puszcza Zielona had similar forms, differing only in details. Early paper cutouts from Puszcza Biała shared many traits with those from Puszcza Zielona. The development of paper cutting was influenced by the annual competition between housewives who decorated their homes before Easter. As a result, new patterns were created and the technique was perfected. At the beginning of the 20th century, paper cutting of Kurpie Białe gained popularity, but it retained archaic forms, likely due to a lack of interest from the townspeople of Pułtusk. Artists created cutouts for their own use and sold them only to local customers, which helped preserve the traditional forms and the original function.
There are two categories of cutouts from Puszcza Biała: monochrome and colorful paste-ons (nalepianki). Monochrome cutouts include zielka – cut from a single piece of paper in the shape of a potted plant with symmetrical leaves – and stars. There were also multicolored zielka. They took the form of three strips decorated with flowers, roosters, or people, and in some cases, three strips of paper topped with small circles were attached to a pot made of multicolored circles glued together. Stars were cut out as circles with a radially arranged openwork geometric ornament, then glued with a disc of paper in a contrasting color, with one or more rosettes pasted onto them. Another type of nalepianka is the ribbon, a form typical of Puszcza Biała, likely derived from crêpe paper ribbons attached to picture frames. The ribbons were made of two strips that, after gluing, spread downward, with a contrasting star placed at the join. The strips were divided into three or four fields with glued openwork rosettes. Known as portki, the ribbons were mainly red, green, and yellow.
Cutouts from Puszcza Biała depicted people, roosters, and birds, either individually or in pairs. Artists glued colorful scraps of paper as wings, tails, and combs of birds, with women dominating among the human figures. There were also more elaborate compositions with uhlans, horses harnessed to carriages, and peasants working in the fields, though these forms disappeared.
observed that the decline of Kurpie Białe paper cutting began during the interwar period. The art revived after World War II, when local and state authorities organized competitions and thematic exhibitions, which contributed to the development of a group of folk artists. At that time, paper cutouts were created not only for personal use, but also for sale, and younger generations learned the craft from their grandmothers and great-grandmothers. The artists developed their own patterns that reflected the characteristics of the region, and – as in Puszcza Zielona – certain families became famous for the craft. Men were involved in paper cutting, though there were much fewer of them (as in Puszcza Zielona).
Despite the efforts of the Kurpie Creativity Cepelia Cooperative in Pułtusk and post-war competitions, the paper cutting traditions of Puszcza Biała disappeared. The population of the region was more open to contacts with Warsaw and outside influences than Puszcza Zielona communities, which contributed to acculturation. Individual artists were unable to ensure the continuity of the tradition. Paper cutting lost its original meaning and was replaced by other decorations, instead finding its way into museums or private collections of researchers and enthusiasts of this art form.
Today, there are local initiatives to preserve the memory and recreate the tradition of paper cutting. Some artists still create Kurpie Białe paper cutouts. The Puszcza Biała – My Little Homeland Association, which oversees the Kuźnia Kurpiowska cultural center in Pniewo, plays an active role in these efforts.
Notable paper cutting artists from Puszcza Biała Marianna Świadkowska from Wypychy, Gmina Somianka; Małgorzata Murziak; Wiesława Archacka, Katarzyna Osowiecka, Teresa Włodarczyk, Genowefa Łada, Stefania Woźnica, and Władysław Kamińska from Rząśnik; Emilia Fornalska from Bartodzieje; Genowefa Światkowska; from Lemany.
Gallery
Wycinanka from Puszcza Zielona
History
The origins of colorful paper cutouts in Puszcza Zielona are thought to date from the mid-19th century. The tradition first appeared in the vicinity of Kadzidło and Myszyniec, and later near Kolno. It began to disappear around 1930. Ethnographer Halina Olędzka suggested that the development of Kurpie paper cutouts was influenced by the presence of Jews in Puszcza Zielona, and that Jewish paper cutouts were similar to those of the Kurpie tradition.
Improved economic conditions in the 19th century, along with the availability of raw materials and models, allowed for the development of wooden construction in the Kurpie region of Puszcza Zielona. Since the 1860s, Kurpie houses were adorned with purely decorative elements. Women decorated the interiors of their homes with paper cutouts, among others, creating miniature works of art with sharp sheep shears and pieces of paper. Colorful cutouts, as well as white curtains made of paper or crêpe paper, were made by women of all ages, with the older ones often being teachers for the younger generations.
The first mentions of colorful Kurpie paper cutouts date back to the 1880s. described curtains cut out of paper, while the July 1886 issue of Wisła magazine reported that Kurpie women cut out "various figures of horses, dragons, flowers, and bizarre animals from colored paper, which they then stuck on the walls of their cottages next to pictures to decorate their main rooms". Colorful glossy paper, produced at the paper mill in Jeziorna, appeared in the countryside thanks to travelling traders, which influenced the development of paper cutting. Although this material reached other regions as well, the art developed epecially among the Kurpie people, where women became masters of paper cutting. Colorful cutouts stuck on the walls of the main room created decorative strips that contrasted with the white walls and drew attention. The decoration of cottages with paper cutouts began to disappear in the 1920s, but was revived after World War II as a result of a competition and exhibition held in Kadzidło in 1948, followed by the activities of the Cepelia cooperative. New forms of paper cutouts appeared in the 1960s, when human figures began to be incorporated into the traditional star shape, one of the forms of the art. Another new form was the so-called las (forest) – a large, rectangular, single-color thematic cutout.
Ribbons and decoratively cut crêpe paper used to cover damaged pictures, mirror frames or crucifixes, observed in Polish villages in the first half of the 19th century, likely preceded colorful cutouts. Initially, housewives attached white paper cutouts to the eaves in the kitchen. Then came crêpe paper or paper curtains, which preceded the actual cutouts. Curtains were shaped like two triangles, which were stuck in pairs in the upper corners of the window frame. Another form was a wide rectangular strip cut into patterns and placed along the upper window frame. At first, simple geometric shapes were used – rhombuses, triangles, serrated edges, and herringbone patterns – while later designs introduced semicircles, as well as anthropomorphic and zoomorphic motifs, such as birds and forest animals. These decorations were changed twice a year, before Christmas and Easter, after whitewashing and cleaning of the cottage.
One of the two classic forms of paper cutouts characteristic of Puszcza Zielona is the leluja (lily) – a symmetrical, vertical, two-part composition. The lower, smaller part forms the base, while the upper part is an elaborate crown, which can be closed or open and is often topped by an element marking the axis of symmetry, such as a cross. There are two types of lelujas: Myszyniec (thickly cut, with geometric patterns and a grid of rhomboidal and triangular meshes) and Kadzidło (finely cut, with plant, zoomorphic, and anthropomorphic elements). Early lelujas were created in the form of three branches coming out of a vase, often decorated with pasted pieces of paper. Over time, new patterns developed, and different regional variations appeared – for example, in the vicinity of Kolno, lelujas were usually cut in pairs and had frayed edges. Today, this form is referenced in the cutouts created by artists from the Łyse area. In the past, lelujas had simple stylized plant or geometric motifs, occasionally including human figures, while in present times, elaborate and finely cut plant and animal motifs dominate. Older Kadzidło-type lelujas had two ornaments in the crown; today there are more.
Another form, noticeable since the beginning of the 20th century, is the three-part leluja known as hostyja (sacramental bread), which resembles a monstrance. It appeared throughout the entire Puszcza Zielona and had sacred motifs such as angels, burning hearts, and candles, with a cross crowning the cutout and marking the axis of symmetry. Today, this form has been forgotten.