Museum Collection Donations 2004-2009
Krakow Fine Arts Academy Museum
Exhibition: October - November, Monday - Friday
Krakow Fine Arts Academy Museum, Gallery of Paintings - 13 Jan Matejko Square, II floor,
Opening hours: 11.00 - 15.00, 16.00 - 18.00
4Walls Gallery, Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art - 27-9 Lea Street,
Opening hours: 08.00 - 19.00
Introduction
The mission of the Fine Arts Academy Museum, established in Kraków in 2003, is the gathering and storing of the artworks of its teachers, graduates as well as other important Polish and foreign artists. The former group is of particular significance to us - it is the teachers' works that constitute a unique chronicle of the development of the Academy, a showcase of methods and outcomes of our teaching and at the same time the testimony to the two hundred years of our tradition.
The current exhibition presents paintings, drawings and sculptures donated to the Museum by artists or their relatives. This rich and highly diverse collection draws on a broad spectrum of artists connected with the Academy. It also proves that these ties have not been broken even many years after graduation. The foreign artists, in turn, who have offered their works to the Academy Museum, expressed their appreciation of the fact that their output would be present in the collection of the oldest Polish art college, whose history is marked by names of many eminent artists.
Professor Adam Wsiołkowski
Rector of Kraków Academy of Fine Arts
Anna Baranowa
In the Native Habitat of Polish Artists
The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, the oldest Polish arts college, is frequently perceived as a fortified stronghold carefully guarding its traditions, values and hierarchy. There are reasons to believe so. Despite the fact that professors of art keep debating the place of the Academy in the changing world, the first and last reform took place here over 100 years ago. Nowadays it would seem difficult to outline the appropriate course of a new reform. In the pluralist and eclectic world there are too many competing proposals. The Academy prefers to guard and teach the artistic fundamentals rather than yield to the fluctuations of post-modernity.
The establishing of the Fine Arts Academy Museum in Krakow in 2003 was an important initiative which strengthened the identity of the Academy and raised its rank. Many might doubt the practicality of setting up another museum in the city which is already struggling for storage space overfilled with exhibits. The founding of the museum, however, is not just a whim, but results from the mission of the Academy, which should not only educate but also document its courses of study. Establishing the museum repays the debt to many generations of teachers and students who left their artworks here, but never lived to the day when the idea, discussed and endeavoured since the beginning of the school, would finally come true. The collection which has formed the core of the museum dates back to 1818, when the School of Painting, Sculpture and Drawing was established as part of the Jagiellonian University. The collected exhibits have varying origins and stem from different periods, bringing closer the history and unique character of Kraków's Academy. They bear witness to the artistic canons of the times when they came into being, but first of all to the people who taught and studied here.
I like to think of Kraków's Academy of Fine Arts as a native habitat of Polish art. So many artists taught here, so many students passed through here! It is sufficient to browse through the volumes stored in the Academy's archives to find out how many future artistic celebrities spent time in the Alma Mater at the Matejki Square and other edifices scattered throughout the city. If the Academy is the native habitat of Polish art, then the museum is its "mother's den." Adam Mickiewicz, the 19th century Romantic poet to whom we owe the concept of matecznik (lit. mother's den), thus writes in Book 4 of Pan Tadeusz, or the Last Foray in Lithuania (prose translation by G.R. Noyes (1917); lines 509-513):
"But finally behind this mist (so runs the common rumour)
extends a very fair and fertile region,
the main capital of the kingdom of beasts and plants.
In it are gathered the seeds of all trees and herbs,
from which their varieties spread abroad throughout the world."
A literary scholar would specify that "the den is a hardly accessible place in the woods, is centre, core, heart. It is as if the forest womb from which all the species originate." Let us add for the sake of precision that in the jargon of the Polish hunters, matecznik is the area in which the natural ecosystem is left intact with all the elements of the food chain.
The Fine Arts Academy Museum wishes to symbolically preserve this "ecosystem" and safeguard all the stages of its development. When the institution was founded six years ago, during the turn of office of Rector Jan Pamuła, the collection exceeded two thousands exhibits. Nobody knows how many of them had been scattered or destroyed, due to the disastrous and often irreversible negligence of the 1960s, 70s and 80s - the last three decades of the communist regime. The natural "ecosystem" was then vandalized and the development was stalled - not only in the field of art, of course. The totalitarian system simply did not favour identity building. The return to the museum idea and its completion in independent Poland was an act of sovereignty on the part of the Academy, which thus emphasised its history and significance.
The existing museum is only a groundwork, the in nuce formula which is bound to develop in terms of organization, space and numbers. In spite of the limited space and too few staff members to put plans and perspectives into effect, the collection is growing fast, which is a strong evidence of public support of the idea. During the last Museum Night (15/16 May 2009) in Kraków, when the Academy was open until midnight, the Museum rooms and the adjoining gallery of the Painting Faculty were crowded with visitors, who were often pleasantly surprised and happy to tour this still little known institution.
Within the last six years, over one hundred exhibits have arrived in the Museum, most of which were donations. It is these which are on display to mark the opening of the 191st year of the Academy. A gift collection is usually rather random and each has its shortcomings. The setting up of a gift exhibition is thus a highly challenging enterprise. How to display them? According to chronology? Alphabetically, according to artist names? Should student works perhaps constitute one motive and the works of mature artists another? It would be also worth juxtaposing a student piece or diploma work with a mature work of particular artists, or combine works in formal or thematic groups. There are numerous possibilities and each has its drawbacks, because the collection as a whole is not representative. I look forward to seeing the final shape of the exhibition, which has been entrusted to Professor Adam Brincken (and he is bound to find a good concept for the exhibition, as he always does); I am convinced that despite my initial reservations every work will find its right place. Why? Because of the organic nature of the "den" - the natural ecosystem in which there is room for any "element of the food chain." Everyone who has been bred by Matejko-style Alma Mater or feels connected with it enters a symbiotic whole, both drawing from it and complementing it.
"In it, as in Noah's ark, of all the kinds of beasts
there is preserved at least one pair for breeding.
In the very centre, we are told, the ancient buffalo
and the bison and the bear, the emperors of the forest, hold their court.
Around them, on trees, nest the swift lynx
and the greedy wolverene, as watchful ministers;
but farther on, as subordinate, noble vassals,
dwell wild boars, wolves, and horned elks.
Above their heads are the falcons and wild eagles,
who live from the lords' tables, as court parasites.
These chief and patriarchal pairs of beasts,
hidden in the kernel of the forest, invisible to the world,
send their children beyond the confines of the wood as colonists,
but themselves in their capital enjoy repose;
they never perish by cut or by shot,
but when old die by a natural death."
(Pan Tadeusz, Book 4, l. 514-529)
What kind of works have enriched the Museum? The lion's share are gifts of professors and lecturers who work for the Academy today, identify with the idea of the museum and feel obliged to support it. They offered their own student works, mature works, and sometimes both at the same time. There are also many works donated by families or heirs of late professors, which emphasises their permanent ties with the Academy. And so from among the former and current teachers of the Academy, whose works or study memorabilia were included in the collection, the following names stand out: Zbigniew Bajek, Andrzej Bednarczyk, Grzegorz Bednarski, Maciej Bieniasz, Stefan Borzęcki, Adam Brincken, Małgorzata Buczek, Adam Hoffmann, Ewa Janus, Sławomir Karpowicz, Łukasz Konieczko, Teresa Kotkowska-Rzepecka, Janina Kraupe-Świderska, Emil Krcha, Roman Kurzawski, Tadeusz Łakomski, Leszek Misiak, Jerzy Nowakowski, Jan Pamuła, Jerzy Panek, Antoni Porczak, Stanisław Rodziński, Czesław Rzepiński, Allan Rzepka, Józef Sękowski, Jan Świderski, Paweł Taranczewski, Wacław Taranczewski, Darek Vasina, Jacek Waltoś, Tadeusz Gustaw Wiktor, Adam Wsiołkowski. A large group are the works of those artists who graduated from Kraków's Academy, e.g. Stanisław Białogłowicz, Teresa Bujnowska, Rafał Bujnowski, Mieczysław T. Janikowski, Stanisław Kucia, Danuta Leszczyńska-Kluza, Werner Horst Lubos, Marcin Maciejowski, Andrzej Antoni Kreutz Majewski, Igor Mitoraj, Tadeusz Mysłowski, Zofia Puget, Jan Rzehak, Jacek Sroka, Stanisław Sacha Stawiarski, Jerzy Henryk Struszkiewicz, Zygmunt Waliszewski, Ewa Żelewska-Wsiołkowska.
A separate group are those artists who are not connected with the Academy in their biographies, but are akin to it in terms of values. Here it is worth mentioning the names of Eugenia Gortchakova from Russia, the honorary doctor of Kraków's Academy Toshihiro Hammano, and, last but not least, Zbigniew Makowski, who with the generosity so typical of him donated a large group of his works, which had been displayed in the Academy's painting gallery last year as part of the artist's retrospective exhibition. In the letter to Professor Adam Brincken, curator of this fine gallery, Zbigniew Makowski wrote: "I hope that my - not too progressive - output will not put off, and maybe even encourage our Descendants to further work" (April 2008). Now as many as six works of the artist, from various periods, are part of the Museum collection, including the unique November Night volume from 1996-2003.
Another sizeable group are recent graduates or current students; they donated their works usually prompted by their professors, who thus drew on the earlier tradition of honouring the best students in this way. The exhibits on display include works by Izabela Gajewska, Agnieszka Snarska, Łukasz Surowiec, Alicja Wątor, Łukasz and Szymon Wojtanowski, Michał Zawada. It would be worthwhile to select more numerous student works for the Museum. I hereby raise this issue for the consideration of all supervisors. It is highly educational to be able to see and compare the point of departure and arrival of well known artists. Such moments of reflection are available to us only in private workshops or academy museums, as in others juvenile works are hardly ever displayed.
Here are several examples of such works displayed at the current exhibition.
The family of Mieczysław T. Janikowski (1912-68) has recently donated the oil painting Old Man at the Table from 1939, which does not resemble later works of the artist in any way. He was one of the most faithful followers of geometrical abstraction, the original formula of which he created while in Paris. The diploma work he titled Old Man at the Table gives evidence of his mastery of realistic technique and foretells the highly cultured painter, formally disciplined and sensitive to colours.
The student work of Janina Kraupe (b. 1921) entitled Nude, from 1947, is surprising too, as an attempt to reconcile two opposed artistic stances - those of Matisse and Picasso. The artist, already highly advanced at the time (she had started up at the Academy before the war), created a successful synthesis of three dimensional forms and colourful planes, emphasising the spatial thinking in the painting - associated with modernity. The sturdy woman figure shaped like Venus from Willendorf has nothing in common with the airy figures from the later works of the artist.
Jacek Waltoś (b.1938) donated to the Academy Museum his Study of a Standing Woman, a drawing from 1958, and the oil painting Behind the Scenes I - According to a Study from 1998. What a difference in figural thinking they illustrate! The early nude study of a figure turned en trois quart and leaning against a high stool is well-balanced, tectonic, a testimony of a strong sense of the classical canon of beauty. Everyone who knows the mature work of Jacek Waltoś, however, realizes that this canon exists there in a paradoxical manner - through negation, absence and uncertainty; through a longing which is impossible to satisfy. In Behind the Scenes I - According to a Study the human figure exists between the flight and restriction, between fragmentation and fullness.
Two works offered by Leszek Misiak (b. 1943), the student piece The Earth - Autumn Behind the Kościuszko Mound (1964) and The Sky and the Earth (1998), prove the faithfulness of the artist to landscape themes and his attachment to the narrowed colour scale, inspired by the scenery of Małopolska. At the same time these are two diverse examples of expression and contrasting emotions. The nearly Informel, "shouting" style of the painting gesture is replaced in his mature works with the search for a geometrical mode for the landscape, for condensation and calming of the form, which have their source in contemplation.
Adam Wsiołkowski (b. 1949), associated with the workshop of Wacław Taranczewski, built his artistic identity (and he was not the only one) on the radical abandonment of colourist tradition, which was his point of departure. Suffice it to compare the Still-life, a student work from 1968, and two paintings, so characteristic of the mature style of Wsiołkowski, from the series entitled Phenomenon (2001) and Felek and I (2004). The early softness of painted forms and elaborate contrasts of colour yield to the rationalization of space, constructed on the conceptual principle and by means of a narrowed, arbitrarily adopted colour spectrum.
Adam Brincken (b. 1951), who obtained his diploma in the workshop of Adam Marczyński, has been attached from the beginning to the object-painting idea. He perceives it differently, however, than the master of Apolline "open arrangements". Bricken's objet-peinture from the student times with the misleading title Summer Scenery (1974) carries along the tangible weight of the matter and content. It grows from the telluric element, which is enriched in later series with symbolically expressed elements of light, water and fire. There is Your Son, There is Your Mother, the objet-peinture from 2004 with a developed structure and symbolic program, marks one of those culminations in the oeuvre of Adam Brincken where the search for spirituality is combined with a strong existential message.
Slightly younger Jacek Sroka (b. 1957) could be placed at the opposite end of the spectrum, in a new painting trend which reached its apogee in the 1980s. The artist's beginnings are illustrated by the student Composition with a Demi- Figure, which is an interesting development of the fin-de-siècle portrait schema, here conveyed expressionistically, however (it most probably represents a melancholic who drowns his sadness in drink). This artist with a double profession, painter and engraver, will quickly depart from such means of expression for the sake of aggressively colourful stories of people, animals and objects, expressed in the poster language of abbreviation and deformation, strongly marked by irony but also by comedy (Cracow's Colourful Paedophile).
The Academy Museum collection also gained two student works of Rafał Bujnowski and Marcin Maciejowski, discovered by Dariusz Vasina in a storeroom of the Painting Workshop at the Graphic Art Faculty, where both the members of the famous Ładnie group had studied. What is interesting is that these juvenile works differ so little from what these artists do today, and they are now recognized by the critics who favour them and by the art market as leaders of our art stage. Were they so mature already while studying? Did the Academy offer them so much freedom? And maybe they still play the roles of enfants terribles, who keep sticking out their tongues to spite the old mother - the Academy?
As can be seen, the Academy Museum collection, even in the portion which constitutes the current exhibition, allows one to spin fascinating stories of teachers and students, of variations of taste, style and ideas, of the permanence of fundamentals and of the changeability without which there is no life.
Only 9 years have remained to the grand bicentenary jubilee of Kraków's Academy of Fine Arts. Keeping track of the time remaining to the event should be combined with the campaign aiming at the solid entrenchment and development of the Academy Museum. We owe this to ourselves, to our predecessors and to our descendants.
NEW ACQUISITIONS OF THE ACADEMY MUSEUM COLLECTION
The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts has a collection of historical exhibits which it has accumulated since its beginnings, i.e. from 1818. Artworks and other artifacts initially served the purpose of teaching aids, as was the custom in other artistic colleges across Europe at the time. They were acquired through purchases and bequests. Later, from the mid-19th century until the 1980s, the works of teachers of the Academy and its outstanding students were collected too, in line with the Statutes of the school.
Sets of historical exhibits bear witness to the generosity of the donors as well as to the changing trends in art and education, although in the past they experienced a periodical lack of appropriate care themselves. Those which have survived are now part of the collection of Kraków's Fine Arts Academy Museum, established in 2003 - the oldest and most interesting collection among those gathered by art colleges in Poland.
In 2004 the collection started to grow again, thus the museum resumed one of its most basic tasks. Currently it is enriched mainly by donations, and the Academy undertakes various promotion campaigns, organizes presentations and issues publications.
In December 2007 and January 2008, the first temporary exhibition was set up at the Academy Museum, entitled Four Masters and their Workshops - Painting and Drawing from Kraków's Fine Arts Academy Collection. The leitmotif of the exhibition was the history of artistic education presented on the basis of selected works of prominent painters who were also teachers at the Academy: Jan Matejko, Józef Pankiewicz, Emil Krcha and Wacław Taranczewski, and their outstanding students. Nearly one hundred paintings and drawings were then displayed, some of which were then generously donated to the Academy by their owners. Also the activities of the Painting Gallery of the Academy, with its periodic exhibitions of the best Polish and foreign painters, contributes to the growth of the Academy collections thanks to the generosity of the donors. From the works presented at the current exhibition these include those of Zbigniew Makowski and Teresa Bujnowska. The works of professors Stanisław Rodziński, Allan Rzepka, Tadeusz Wiktor, and Adam Wsiołkowski in turn made their way to the Museum collection as gifts following the events organized by the Main Library as part of its One Book Gallery displays. The artists whom the Fine Arts Academy awarded with honorary doctorates - Igor Mitoraj (2003) and Toshihiro Hamano (2006) donated very valuable sculptures too.
The enlargement of the main building of the Academy in 2007 was a surprising opportunity to expand the collection. During the construction works, fragments of burials, building constructions and pottery from various historical periods were found in the ground (the oldest dating back to the Neolithic). Some of these exhibits will certainly be displayed in the future.
The Kraków Academy, inaugurating the academic year 2009/2010, presents the exhibition of gifts which enriched the Museum collection in the years 2004-2009. The display was organized according to two arrangement concepts and in two venues: the main edifice at Matejki Square and the building at Lea Street. In the former the exhibition is set up at the second floor, in the Museum room and in the adjoining Gallery, graciously made available by its curator Professor Adam Brincken.
The number of donated works on display exceeds one hundred inventory items. Around a dozen exhibits, mainly the paintings on canvas which are currently under conservation, have not been included in the exhibition. Among the works there are paintings, drawings, sculptures and designs authored by teachers, graduates and students of Kraków's Academy of Fine Arts as well as artists from other cultural centres, both in Poland and abroad. A separate category are memorabilia of professors of the Academy, such as paint cases, paints, brushes, easels as well as an interesting pigment mill.
The donor which I should particularly like to honor and mention with gratitude is Professor Maciej Radnicki, who has recently passed away. The gift of this teacher, educator and organizer of many prestigious exhibitions and at the same time the former chairman of Academy Museum Council and our dear colleague is especially significant for the newly established museum. This is a design work and concerns the adaptation of the rooms of the former Lettering Workshop for the permanent exhibition of the Academy Museum. It is located at the second floor of the main building of the Academy at 13 Matejki Square. There both employees of the Museum and visitors experience the functional solutions and esthetic values of this design on the daily basis.
The works donated to the Academy collection represent various tendencies and schools in art. In painting, the works of Academy teachers are of particular significance for the collection, and include those of: Zbigniew Bajek, Andrzej Bednarczyk, Grzegorz Bednarski, Adam Brincken, Małgorzata Buczek, Zbylut Grzywacz, Adam Hoffmann, Stanisław Karpowicz, Łukasz Konieczko, Teresa Kotkowska-Rzepecka, Janina Kraupe-Świderska, Andrzej Kreutz Majewski, Tadeusz Łakomski, Leszek Misiak, Jan Pamuła, Stanisław Rodziński, Czesław Rzepiński, Paweł Taranczewski, Dariusz Vasina, Jacek Waltoś, Tadeusz Wiktor, Adam Wsiołkowski, Lucjan Ząbkowski. Other donated paintings were authored by: Stanisław Białogłowicz, Teresa Bujnowska, Mieczysław Janikowski, Teresa Leszczyńska-Kluza, Zbigniew Makowski, Tadeusz Mysłowski, Jerzy Panek, Jacek Sroka, Stanisław „Sacha" Stawiarski, Zygmunt Waliszewski, Ewa Żelewska-Wsiołkowska. Sculptures are represented among the donated works by Igor Mitoraj, Toshihiro Hamano, Stefan Borzęcki, Ewa Janus, Jerzy Nowakowski, Antoni Porczak, Zofia Puget, Józef Sękowski. A category in itself is the gift of the designer Professor Roman Kurzawski entitled Chair.
The student work collection has gained 33 new inventory items, which constituted a considerable enlargement of the Museum collection. The authors themselves, their families, or other owners donated the student works of well-known artists: Czesław Rzepiński, Grzegorz Bednarski, Maciej Bieniasz, Adam Brincken, Leszek Misiak, Jacek Sroka, Jacek Waltoś, Adam Wsiołkowski, Rafał Bujnowski, Marcin Maciejowski. The youngest artists include: Izabela Gajewska, Agnieszka Snarska, Łukasz Surowiec, Alicja Wątor, Łukasz Wojtanowski, Szymon Wojtanowski, Michał Zawada.
It was primarily the donors who contributed to the growth in value and range of the Museum collection and it is to every one of them that I owe my deepest gratitude. The students of Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art who carried out conservation of the exhibits as part of their class work also deserve my recognition and warmest thanks.
Małgorzata Sokołowska
Curator of Kraków's Fine Arts Academy Museum
NEW ACQUISITIONS OF THE ACADEMY MUSEUM COLLECTION
The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts has a collection of historical exhibits which it has accumulated since its beginnings, i.e. from 1818. Artworks and other artifacts initially served the purpose of teaching aids, as was the custom in other artistic colleges across
Sets of historical exhibits bear witness to the generosity of the donors as well as to the changing trends in art and education, although in the past they experienced a periodical lack of appropriate care themselves. Those which have survived are now part of the collection of Kraków’s Fine Arts Academy Museum, established in 2003 – the oldest and most interesting collection among those gathered by art colleges in
In 2004 the collection started to grow again, thus the museum resumed one of its most basic tasks. Currently it is enriched mainly by donations, and the Academy undertakes various promotion campaigns, organizes presentations and issues publications.
In December 2007 and January 2008, the first temporary exhibition was set up at the
The enlargement of the main building of the Academy in 2007 was a surprising opportunity to expand the collection. During the construction works, fragments of burials, building constructions and pottery from various historical periods were found in the ground (the oldest dating back to the Neolithic). Some of these exhibits will certainly be displayed in the future.
The
The number of donated works on display exceeds one hundred inventory items. Around a dozen exhibits, mainly the paintings on canvas which are currently under conservation, have not been included in the exhibition. Among the works there are paintings, drawings, sculptures and designs authored by teachers, graduates and students of Kraków’s
The donor which I should particularly like to honor and mention with gratitude is Professor Maciej Radnicki, who has recently passed away. The gift of this teacher, educator and organizer of many prestigious exhibitions and at the same time the former chairman of Academy Museum Council and our dear colleague is especially significant for the newly established museum. This is a design work and concerns the adaptation of the rooms of the former Lettering Workshop for the permanent exhibition of the
The works donated to the Academy collection represent various tendencies and schools in art. In painting, the works of Academy teachers are of particular significance for the collection, and include those of: Zbigniew Bajek, Andrzej Bednarczyk, Grzegorz Bednarski, Adam Brincken, Małgorzata Buczek, Zbylut Grzywacz, Adam Hoffmann, Stanisław Karpowicz, Łukasz Konieczko, Teresa Kotkowska-Rzepecka, Janina Kraupe-Świderska, Andrzej Kreutz Majewski, Tadeusz Łakomski, Leszek Misiak, Jan Pamuła, Stanisław Rodziński, Czesław Rzepiński, Paweł Taranczewski, Dariusz Vasina, Jacek Waltoś, Tadeusz Wiktor, Adam Wsiołkowski, Lucjan Ząbkowski. Other donated paintings were authored by: Stanisław Białogłowicz, Teresa Bujnowska, Mieczysław Janikowski, Teresa Leszczyńska-Kluza, Zbigniew Makowski, Tadeusz Mysłowski, Jerzy Panek, Jacek Sroka, Stanisław „Sacha” Stawiarski, Zygmunt Waliszewski, Ewa Żelewska-Wsiołkowska. Sculptures are represented among the donated works by Igor Mitoraj, Toshihiro Hamano, Stefan Borzęcki, Ewa Janus, Jerzy Nowakowski, Antoni Porczak, Zofia Puget, Józef Sękowski. A category in itself is the gift of the designer Professor Roman Kurzawski entitled Chair.
The student work collection has gained 33 new inventory items, which constituted a considerable enlargement of the Museum collection. The authors themselves, their families, or other owners donated the student works of well-known artists: Czesław Rzepiński, Grzegorz Bednarski, Maciej Bieniasz, Adam Brincken, Leszek Misiak, Jacek Sroka, Jacek Waltoś, Adam Wsiołkowski, Rafał Bujnowski, Marcin Maciejowski. The youngest artists include: Izabela Gajewska, Agnieszka Snarska, Łukasz Surowiec, Alicja Wątor, Łukasz Wojtanowski, Szymon Wojtanowski, Michał Zawada.
It was primarily the donors who contributed to the growth in value and range of the Museum collection and it is to every one of them that I owe my deepest gratitude. The students of Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art who carried out conservation of the exhibits as part of their class work also deserve my recognition and warmest thanks.
Małgorzata Sokołowska
Curator of Kraków’s Fine Arts Academy Museum
NEW ACQUISITIONS OF THE ACADEMY MUSEUM COLLECTION
The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts has a collection of historical exhibits which it has accumulated since its beginnings, i.e. from 1818. Artworks and other artifacts initially served the purpose of teaching aids, as was the custom in other artistic colleges across
Sets of historical exhibits bear witness to the generosity of the donors as well as to the changing trends in art and education, although in the past they experienced a periodical lack of appropriate care themselves. Those which have survived are now part of the collection of Kraków’s Fine Arts Academy Museum, established in 2003 – the oldest and most interesting collection among those gathered by art colleges in
In 2004 the collection started to grow again, thus the museum resumed one of its most basic tasks. Currently it is enriched mainly by donations, and the Academy undertakes various promotion campaigns, organizes presentations and issues publications.
In December 2007 and January 2008, the first temporary exhibition was set up at the
The enlargement of the main building of the Academy in 2007 was a surprising opportunity to expand the collection. During the construction works, fragments of burials, building constructions and pottery from various historical periods were found in the ground (the oldest dating back to the Neolithic). Some of these exhibits will certainly be displayed in the future.
The
The number of donated works on display exceeds one hundred inventory items. Around a dozen exhibits, mainly the paintings on canvas which are currently under conservation, have not been included in the exhibition. Among the works there are paintings, drawings, sculptures and designs authored by teachers, graduates and students of Kraków’s
The donor which I should particularly like to honor and mention with gratitude is Professor Maciej Radnicki, who has recently passed away. The gift of this teacher, educator and organizer of many prestigious exhibitions and at the same time the former chairman of Academy Museum Council and our dear colleague is especially significant for the newly established museum. This is a design work and concerns the adaptation of the rooms of the former Lettering Workshop for the permanent exhibition of the
The works donated to the Academy collection represent various tendencies and schools in art. In painting, the works of Academy teachers are of particular significance for the collection, and include those of: Zbigniew Bajek, Andrzej Bednarczyk, Grzegorz Bednarski, Adam Brincken, Małgorzata Buczek, Zbylut Grzywacz, Adam Hoffmann, Stanisław Karpowicz, Łukasz Konieczko, Teresa Kotkowska-Rzepecka, Janina Kraupe-Świderska, Andrzej Kreutz Majewski, Tadeusz Łakomski, Leszek Misiak, Jan Pamuła, Stanisław Rodziński, Czesław Rzepiński, Paweł Taranczewski, Dariusz Vasina, Jacek Waltoś, Tadeusz Wiktor, Adam Wsiołkowski, Lucjan Ząbkowski. Other donated paintings were authored by: Stanisław Białogłowicz, Teresa Bujnowska, Mieczysław Janikowski, Teresa Leszczyńska-Kluza, Zbigniew Makowski, Tadeusz Mysłowski, Jerzy Panek, Jacek Sroka, Stanisław „Sacha” Stawiarski, Zygmunt Waliszewski, Ewa Żelewska-Wsiołkowska. Sculptures are represented among the donated works by Igor Mitoraj, Toshihiro Hamano, Stefan Borzęcki, Ewa Janus, Jerzy Nowakowski, Antoni Porczak, Zofia Puget, Józef Sękowski. A category in itself is the gift of the designer Professor Roman Kurzawski entitled Chair.
The student work collection has gained 33 new inventory items, which constituted a considerable enlargement of the Museum collection. The authors themselves, their families, or other owners donated the student works of well-known artists: Czesław Rzepiński, Grzegorz Bednarski, Maciej Bieniasz, Adam Brincken, Leszek Misiak, Jacek Sroka, Jacek Waltoś, Adam Wsiołkowski, Rafał Bujnowski, Marcin Maciejowski. The youngest artists include: Izabela Gajewska, Agnieszka Snarska, Łukasz Surowiec, Alicja Wątor, Łukasz Wojtanowski, Szymon Wojtanowski, Michał Zawada.
It was primarily the donors who contributed to the growth in value and range of the Museum collection and it is to every one of them that I owe my deepest gratitude. The students of Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art who carried out conservation of the exhibits as part of their class work also deserve my recognition and warmest thanks.
Małgorzata Sokołowska
Curator of Kraków’s Fine Arts Academy Museum
