During my recent trip to Kraków I visited the new XX-XXI Polish Arts Gallery in the main building of the National Museum in Kraków. If you are interested in Polish modern and contemporary art history I recommend that you set aside about two hours for this Gallery alone. Of course there is a lot to see so I had to be very selective. The Museum also has a large Gallery of Decorative Arts and temporary exhibitions galleries, which are also worth visiting if you have more time. Here are my top ten favourites ordered chronologically. 

1. Girl with Chrysanthemums (1894, oil on cardboard) by Olga Boznańska (1865-1940).

Boznańska was best known for her portraits, and this is by far her most famous work. The girl in the painting appears very serious and almost ghost-like. She is holding a bunch of white chrysanthemums in her arms, flowers traditionally associated with the dead. Posed against a pale grey background her grey dress and her piercing gaze add to the otherworldly atmosphere.

2. Portrait of Ignacy Wasserberg (c.1912, oil on canvas) by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy) (1885-1939).

Another famous portraitist Witkacy was not somebody you would go and ask for a distinguished traditional portrait. A key figure of the Young Poland art movement Witkacy had a very unorthodox approach to portraiture. In this portrait of his friend Ignacy (Izak) Wasserberg, a doctor and philosopher, Witkacy captured his likeness very well but with a comedic twist. The doctor is sitting next to a table with a bunch of bananas and oranges. Witkacy chose to paint his friend holding a half-peeled banana in his hand.

3. Sviatovid, from the series Slav Deities (1918, litograph on paper) by Zofia Stryjeńska (1891-1976).

Stryjeńska created this image of Sviatovid, one of works in her series of Slav Deities in 1918, the year Poland regained its Independence. Around that time many Polish artists, like Stryjeńska, were interested in the preservation of Polish folklore art and traditions. Stryjeńska created many images inspired by events from Polish history, folklore, old legends, and Slavic mythology. This particular image depicts an old Slavic god Sviatovid, god of abundance and war who was often shown with four faces although Stryjeńska did not stick to that tradition in her image. 

4. Hutsul Man (1925, oil on canvas) by Władysław Jarocki (1879-1965).

Jarocki, like several of his contemporaries was interested in the rich culture of the Polish Highlands and mountain regions of the neighbouring countries. He was especially fond of the Carpatian Hutsuls. This portrait of a man in traditional Hutsul clothing is striking with its vibrant colours and modern composition. The man holding a candlestick is about to enter a house, leaving behind a snow-covered landscape.

5. Masons (1934) by Eugeniusz Waniek (1906-2009).

In this avant-garde depiction of a team of bricklayers the artist captured a modern daily life scene. Images of hardworking labourers were popular in the interwar period. The figures of bricklayers are simplified and captured mid-movement. Straight away we can notice the influence of Cubism and Expressionism in the emphasis on the geometric forms, blocks of colour and dynamic composition. Waniek was a member of the Formists, an art and literary group which started out as the Polish Expressionists in 1917 in Kraków, but eventually expanded their interest in the form even beyond the Expressionism. The Formists opposed natural representation and were also influenced by Cubism, Futurism and Polish folk art.

6. Interrogation (To The Interrogated) (1963, mixed media, assemblage) by Władysław Hasior (1928-1999).

A Polish pioneer of assemblage art, Hasior dedicated this piece to all of those who have ever been interrogated. The interrogation was a common and feared part of life in Poland after WWII. The piece is composed of found objects in the form of a chair, which serves as a surreal metaphor for the interrogation. The chair seat has protruding metal spikes and a pile of metal coins, perhaps a reference to the thirty pieces of silver from the New Testament. The back of the chair is made from metal mesh, and incorporates a torn metal box showing a burning flame. Above the flame are a pair of plastic doll’s arms and a plaster cast of a face tied to the back of the chair with twisted metal wire. Like many of Hasior’s pieces this sculpture is symbolic, unnerving and thought-provoking. His art was often seen as shocking and controversial but at the same time moving and deeply meaningful.

7. Works from the series ‘Herbarium’ (1972, polyester, plywood) by Alina Szapocznikow (1926-1973).

Polyester casts of the body of the artist’s son Piotr can be seen here as an attempt to preserve life from the passing of time. Szapocznikow’s interest in the themes of the human body, life and death are especially poignant in the context of her long battle with breast cancer, which she finally lost in 1973. Many of the artist’s sculptures incorporate casts of her own body parts, such as lips and breasts. Although the artist was mostly silent on the subject of her experiences during WWII in Poland, that part of her biography must have heavily informed her art. Together with her mother she spent the period between 1940-1942 in Jewish Ghettos in Pabianice and then Łódź, and was subsequently moved through concentration camps Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Theresienstadt. On display at the National Museum of Kraków are also other works by Szapocznikow including ‘One-legged woman’ (1965), and Alina’s Funeral (1970). In a way her innovative art has the capacity to say more than words ever could.

8. Queue Still Goes On (1973 oil on canvas) by Zbylut Grzywacz (1939-2004).

The queue is a common theme in the artist’s work, it was one of the symbols of life in the communist Poland. The individuals sitting in a waiting room queue are shown as dehumanised figures. They lose their features and individuality by slowly fading into the background. We can still recognize them as humans but their faces have become blank silhouettes. This painting is an homage to an earlier work by Andrzej Wróblewski The Queue Goes On (1956). In his 1973 work Grzywacz says that the situation in the country after almost twenty years did not change or became even worse.

9. 500 × 40 × 40 (2000, wood and salt) by Mirosław Bałka (b. 1958).

Bałka excels in his minimalistic conceptual art installations. This tall tower is made of old wood panels from the floor of Galeria Foksal, an art gallery in Warsaw. Although not immediately obvious without context, this work embodies one of Bałka’s interests – the memory of places made tangible through visual art. The tower rests on a pile of salt, to the visitors to the National Museum in Kraków it might read as a reference to Wieliczka Salt mine near Kraków, a popular tourist attraction. The artist usually prefers to leave his works open to the interpretation, hence the title of this piece includes merely the artwork’s dimensions 500 × 40 × 40 cm.

10. Ruins (2005, sculpture, OSB board, metal, enamel) by Monika Sosnowska (b.1972).

Sosnowska’s sculptures and installations blend art and architecture. The artist is especially interested in 20th century architecture and how the buildings affected those who lived there and used those spaces on a regular basis. Ruins (2005) are a reference to Polish post-war public buildings. Poles growing up in the communist and early post-communist period will undoubtedly remember schools, town halls or hospital interiors painted with a similar combination of green and white paint, and their long and uninviting corridors. On the other hand this playful artwork has a certain nostalgic feel too.

Thanks for reading. Hope you liked my eclectic selection from the National Museum in Kraków. Feel free to share your opinions in the comments.

Read more:

Link to the National Museum in Kraków main building website click here  https://mnk.pl/branch/mnk-the-main-building