Medieval art
Sacred art constitutes the core of artistic production in the Middle Ages. It can be seen in the country's churches and major museums, such as the National Museum in Warsaw, famous for its rooms of religious art and its wooden triptychs.
During the Renaissance, sculpture made its appearance in civil buildings, in the form of bas-reliefs. In Warsaw, the Królikarnia sculpture museum covers six centuries, from 1400 to the present day.
In places of worship, the art of stained glass is unique in Poland. In Krakow, where a school continues to perpetuate the stained glass tradition, theChurch of St. Francis of Assisi houses the finest examples of the genre.
The master of Gothic sculpture, Wit Stwosz or Veit Stoss (c. 1448-1533), who ran a workshop in Krakow between 1470 and 1490, created the famous polychrome altarpiece in Krakow's Basilica of Our Lady between 1477 and 1489. This five-panel altarpiece is considered the masterpiece of the late Gothic period. Closed, its twelve pictures illustrate the life of the Virgin Mary. The open shutters allude to the Golden Legend, according to which Mary died quietly among the apostles. At the top, the crowning of Mary is placed under the aegis of Poland's patron saints, St. Stanislaus and St. Adalbert. Confiscated by the Nazis, the altarpiece traveled around the world before being returned to its city of origin in 1946.
Academism and Baroque
At the end of the 16th century, sculpture and painting experienced a remarkable boom. Church interiors were adorned with trompe-l'œil and flamboyant sculptures. In painting, gold invaded an increasingly rococo production. In the 18th century, from the end of the reign of John III Sobieski, foreign rulers, who were engaged in power games to enslave Poland, paid little attention to culture. Polish artists turned to the Italian Baroque: Szymon Czechowicz (1685-1775) and Tadeusz Kuntze were the main representatives of this trend. Czechowicz was admitted to the Académie Saint-Luc in Rome. Awarded prizes for his drawings, he was commissioned to decorate churches in Italy and Poland. Returning to Poland in 1731, he became an official painter at the court of King Augustus II the Strong, where he promoted the influence of Roman religious art on Polish culture. He adopted academic line and composition, as well as Venetian tonalities. In Warsaw, Kielce and Krakow, his canvases adorned cathedrals.
Tadeus Kuntze (1733-1793), known as Konicz, is associated with the Neapolitan school in the late Baroque tradition of Francesco Solimena. This movement was characterized by a multiplication of subjects and heightened dramatic expression. Although based in Italy, he produced two gigantic canvases for Krakow's Wawel Cathedral: Martyrdom of Saint Wojciech and Saint Kazimierz.
In reaction to this formal overload, realism asserted itself at the turn of the 19th century.
Historical art
Poland's eventful history is revealed in the work of painter Jan Matejko, born in Krakow in 1838. Acclaimed as Poland's greatest painter of historical pictures, Matejko depicts his country's key figures and events. He was only twenty-four when he painted Stanczyk(The King's Jester). In 1873, he became a teacher and director of the Krakow School of Fine Arts, a position he held until his death in 1893. Worth seeing: his sensitive portraits and the fresco in Krakow's Basilica of Our Lady. The Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) houses several of his works in the Gallery of 19th-century Polish Painting, the world's largest collection of Polish art.
Władysław Ślewiński
Władysław Ślewiński (1856-1918) went into exile in Paris in 1888. In Montparnasse, he met Paul Gauguin, a founding member of the Pont-Aven school. Gauguin, who advocated a return to naive and folk art, became his mentor. Ślewiński nonetheless developed a personal style, melancholy or dreamy, with a darkened palette. After Gauguin's departure for Polynesia, the artist returned to Poland. He offers his reading of Polish folklore in portraits(The Orphan of Poronin), landscapes and still lifes.
Nature also inspires Jan Stanisławski (1860-1907), who studies with landscape artist Wojciech Gerson, then in Paris, where he remains for a dozen years. Inspired by Impressionism, he brought back from his travels views such as Ruches en Ukraine. In 1897, he founded the Society of Polish Artists, Sztuka, to promote Polish art.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Poland was immersed in the artistic revolutions affecting the rest of Europe. Cubism inspired the brilliant Tadeusz Makowski (1882-1932), who also pursued his career in France.
Young Poland
Polish modernism was driven by the Young Poland(Młoda Polska) movement, which disrupted all forms of expression at the end of the 19th century. Opposed to academicism and naturalism, these mainly Krakow-based artists proposed innovative approaches based on instinct. Writer and poet Stanisław Przybyszewski (1868-1927) publishes their aesthetic manifesto in the magazine Zycie(Life). The intelligentsia meets in Krakow's fashionable cafés. Artist Stanisław Wyspiański (1869-1907) stands out for the multiplicity of his talents. An exceptional stained glass artist, like his compatriots Matejko and Mehoffer, he embodied Polish Art Nouveau. Pending the opening of the Wyspiański Museum, part of his collection can be seen at the Szołayski House. Wyspiański designed the polychrome frescoes and magnificent stained glass windows for the Church of St. Francis of Assisi.
Tadeusz Kantor
Immense man of the theater, Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) personifies the Polish avant-garde of the 20th century. In his early years, Kantor experimented with tachist painting, followed by collages incorporating found objects. Influenced by Picabia and Duchamp, he visited Paris in 1958, then exhibited throughout Europe and as far afield as New York. Kantor staged his first shows in Krakow, using happening, painting, writing, performing arts and poetry in what he called informal theater. A colorful character, he continues to inspire artists in all fields.
The interwar period was a golden age for the Polish avant-garde. The socialist realism that affected neighboring countries did not develop much in Poland.
Sculptor Igor Mitoraj
His work Eros Bendato is among the monumental statues in Kraków's Main Market Square (Rynek Główny). Igor Mitoraj (1944-2014) is one of Poland's greatest sculptors. Trained in drawing in Bielsko-Biała and then at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, he studied under Tadeusz Kantor, who encouraged him to pursue a career in the West. It was in Paris that Mitoraj explored the practice of painting and then sculpture in Mexico. His first monumental work, Le Grand Toscano, was installed at La Défense, near Paris. Antiquity and myth soon take center stage in his work. The artist lives temporarily in Italy, where he intends to immerse himself in Michelangelo. In 1985, an exhibition at Rome's Castel Sant'Angelo launched his international career.
Photography
In the 19th century, over 5,000 Poles were exiled to France. Some of them turned to photography as a means of integrating and developing a flourishing career. In Paris, the daguerreotype became all the rage. Among its first masters, Józef Felix Zieliński (1808-1878) invented a coloring process. He was followed by Szweycer, Mieczkowski, Niewenglowski and Ogonowski, who were responsible for essential advances.
The Museum of the History of Photography in Krakow and its modern branch, the MuFo (16, Józefitów Street), give pride of place to photography.
Among the photographers to discover, Piotr Uklański (b. 1968), also a painter and filmmaker, exhibits worldwide. Zbigniew Dłubak (1921-2005) accomplished the feat of organizing a photo exhibition in the concentration camp where he was deported. He went on to teach the art and edit the magazine Fotografia. Similarly, Mendel Grossmann (1913-1945) introduced a camera into the ghetto where he was imprisoned. His accounts of daily life were later published.
Roman Opałka was born in France to Polish parents in 1931. After 1965, the conceptual artist devoted himself to a single project: capturing and materializing time in paint. Throughout his life, Opałka observed a ritual of taking his photographic self-portrait every day according to immutable plastic rules. Some of his works can be seen at the National Museum in Krakow.
Urban art
Ever since the Great Wars, walls in Poland have been covered with signs and slogans, including the popular "Polska Walcząca" (Fighting Poland).
By now, Polish street artists have established their reputation. Mariusz Waras paints in every corner of the globe. The Etam Cru duo produce monumental paintings full of humor. Natalia Rak's graphic work draws on metaphors and classical literature.
Gdańsk is a mecca for open-air art. More than sixty frescoes cover the walls of the Pearl of the Baltic. The first works here appeared in 1979, during a festival organized for the city's millennium. The first fresco, by Rafał Roskowiński, depicts two prominent Polish citizens: Lech Wałęsa and Pope John Paul II. Every year, the festival has guest artists work on a theme, such as waiting in 2016.
Contemporary art
A major player in Polish and international contemporary art, the Zachęta National Art Gallery is located in Warsaw. It spotlights young artists, as do Warsaw's many art galleries: the avant-garde Foksal Gallery and the splendid Królikarnia.
At the helm of the Cracow Gallery Week-end Krakers (held in October), Małgorzata Gołębiewska is a true talent scout in Poland. Among the institutions dedicated to contemporary art, MOCAK (Krakow Museum of Contemporary Art) presents a broad panorama of the art scene of the last two decades.
Art galleries abound in Krakow. The city's leading artists exhibit on the first floor of Piano Nobile (Rynek Glówny 33): sculpture and graphic art are on the program. The Fajkiel Gallery (ul. Grodzka 25) showcases the cream of Polish graphic art. Daring and even experimental art can be appreciated at Zderzak Gallery (ul. Floriańska 3). The address of choice for sniffing out new trends!
