Weiss at the Academy

self-portrait, 1902
olil on canwas, 32 × 24 cm
Krzysztofa Musiała collection

Exhibition "WEISS at the ACADEMY"

Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts Museum in Krakow

13 Matejko Square, October - December 2010

Stanisław Wyspiański Museum at the Szołayski House

11 Szczepańska Street, October 5, 2010 - January 2, 2011

The exhibition features Wojciech Weiss's artwork closely related to the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków where he studied, lectured as a professor and which he managed as the long-term Rector. The show ranges from earliest works of the artist created under the influence of Academism during his academic years to his most involved works. The earliest painting featured in the show, dated 1890, was created before Wojciech Weiss entered the Academy of Fine Arts. His final work, the symbolic "Farewell to the Academy" was completed in1949.

Before 1900, at the end of his studies, Weiss was already inspired by the new, modern and fin de siècle art. The period of full artistic maturity, namely the years in which Weiss was the professor at the Academy, is represented by female nude paintings created in his studio at the Academy, which brought him fame and the name of the "Polish Renoir" in the Twenties.

The artist's studio is also a focus of the show, centred around the "Kryzys" / "Crisis"composition, a symbolic self-creation with a mannequin-suicide. The post-war story is sealed with the ambiguous title, "Farewell to the Academy".

The exhibition paints a picture of the methods of teaching fine art throughout the decades, beginning with the fall of the 19th century and finishing off with the Second World War. It is the main event in the Wojciech Weiss Year commemorating the 60th anniversary of the artist's death. It is organized under the honourable auspices of the Kraków City Council. Additional events which took place earlier as part of Weiss Year included: two exhibitions entitled "Chopin. Weiss. Fin de siècle" and "Weiss. Photographer. Impressionist", the opening of Wojciech Weiss Trail in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska and a series of "Paint the Weiss"happenings organised on the streets of Kraków.

Curator: Zofia Weiss Nowina-Konopka.

Wystawa zorganizowana przez:
Akademię Sztuk Pięknych w Krakowie
Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie
oraz
Fundację Muzeum Wojciecha Weissa

Kurator wystawy: Zofia Weiss-Nowina Konopka
Koordynator ze strony MNK: Iza Wałek
Koordynator ze strony ASP: Małgorzata Sokołowska

Wystawie towarzyszy publikacja przygotowana przez ASP.