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Re-opening of the 20th- Century Polish Art Gallery
The Gallery of Polish 20th- Century Art is to be re-opened in November at the National Museum in Cracow.
Reflecting Cracow’s prominent role in Polish cultural life at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, the core of the gallery is made up of the “Young Poland” works of art. Presented are paintings by Wojtkiewicz, Wawrzeniecki and Stachiewicz along with sculptures by Laszczka. Displayed are landscape paintings by Pankiewicz, Wyczółkowski, Ruszczyc and Stanisławski.
Representatives of “Young Poland” include artists enchanted by Romantic literature and philosophy of history. The most prominent among them were Stanisław Wyspiański, the greatest art personality of the turn of centuries, and Jacek Malczewski concerned in his works primarily with the lot of Polish people. Epitomising “Young Poland” were artists captivated by the colour of rural life. Representing this genre are paintings by Tetmajer, Pautsch and Sichulski. Sculptores by Szymanowski and Szczepkowski are complementing this section of the exhibition.
Noteworthy are paintings by Ślewiński influenced by French art and the set of superb paintings by Boznańska.
Richly represented in the Gallery is art of the inter- war period. Singled out are works representing formism and colourism dominating in art at the time. On display are works produced by formists living in Cracow (Pronaszko, Chwistek, Czyżewski and Winkler) and Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy). Works by Pankiewicz are most representative of colourism. On show are landscape and still life paintings by Cybis, Ruszka-Cybis, Waliszewski and Nacht- Samborski.
A special place in the Gallery is occupied by works of the First Cracow Group of artists (Stern, Marczyński and Lewicki) and of the Second Cracow Group (re-activated in 1957). Along with works by Kantor, Jarema and Stern shown is the artistic output of Nowosileski, Mikulski, Rosenstein, Skarżyński, Brzozowski, Kraupe-Świderska, Tarabula, Urbanowicz and Bereś.
Artists of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970sare represented through paintings and drawings by Wróblewski and the Cracow Group of Wprost (Bieniasz, Grzywacz, Sobocki, Waltoś).
The last and final part of the display covers works by the youngest generation of artists, specifically members of the Ładnie- Maciejowski, Bujnowski and Sasnal group, which scored a spectacular success world-wide in recent years. A separate section has been set aside for works by women artists (Kozyra, Deskur, Żebrowska, Szapocznikow and Pinińska-Bereś).
The Gallery of Polish 20th- century Art takes visitors through successive decades and introduces them to the different artistic trends. It is a fine lesson in history of Polish art. It presents some of the very best Polish paintings and sculptures, the “icons” of Polish modernism, inter-war art and post-war avant-garde.
Urszula Kozakowska- Zaucha
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