From 23 April 2017 new exhibition: CONNECTION WARSAW - ZAKOPANE
23 April – 6 August 2017 / Opening: 23 April 2017 at 6 p.m
Exhibition co-organised by the National Museum in Warsaw and the Tatra Museum in Zakopane
23 April – 6 August 2017
The Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture – division of the National Museum in Warsaw
19 May – 2 September 2018
The Gallery of 20th Century Art at Oksza villa – branch of the Tatra Museum
23 April 2017 (Sunday) at 6 p.m – opening of the exhibition in Museum of Sculpture at Królikarnia Palace, free admision
The herbarium of moss specimens from the Tatras made by Tytus Chałubiński, paintings by Zofia Stryjeńska, Witkacy's drawings, fabrics and toys designed by the students of Antoni Kenar, bold modernist designs of the shelter by the Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), collages by Jan Dziaczkowski and new works by Zbigniew Rogalski and Igor Omulecki: these are just some of the things that will be available to the viewers from the 23rd of April 2017 at the Museum of Sculpture in Królikarnia, and in 2018 in the Zakopane Gallery of 20th Century Art at the Oksza villa. By following in the footsteps of the artists who due to their profession, passion or social life travelled between Warsaw and Zakopane, the exhibition tells the story of a strong culture-forming link between the two capitals: the political and the winter one.
The show opens with a fragment of the Tatras Panorama – a huge composition presented since 1896 in a specifically designed rotunda in Dynasy, Warsaw. In accordance with a trend popular in the 19th century, the painting was complemented with illusionist scenography. In order to build artificial mountains, several tons of granite from the Tatras were brought to the capital by train. The Tatras Panorama does not exist anymore, but after 120 years its fragment will again be on view in Warsaw: in the rotunda of the Królikarnia palace.
In the second half of 19th century, the city of Zakopane gained the status of a health resort (so called climatic station) thanks to the initiative of Tytus Chałubiński, a physician from Warsaw. It attracted people with the promise to cure tuberculosis, but, according to the painter Rafał Malczewski, even healthy people were known to succumb to a sense of delirium there and felt the urge to become feverishly creative. Witkacy became the symbol of artistic ferment in Zakopane. The painter added “zakopianine” – a metaphor of the eerie atmosphere of the city that attracted many and destroyed some – to the list of consumed psychoactive substances. The bylaws of his famous Portrait Company were published in the capital, but the commissions were carried out both in Warsaw and in Zakopane. Irena Krzywicka, a feminist from Warsaw, described the legendary meetings at Witkacy's villa in Zakopane. The works of art that will be displayed at the exhibition in Królikarnia, and one year later in the Oksza villa, reflect the intermingled social biographies of artists from Zakopane.
The Tatras – a universally acclaimed national treasure – inspired fantasies and utopian projects of their transformation. In 1936, after the death of Józef Piłsudski, an idea was born to treat Giewont as a memorial to the Chief of State, built for him by nature. Moreover, the interwar period instigated construction of tourism infrastructure including the cable car to Kasprowy Wierch, whose stations were designed by a pair of architects from Warsaw – Anna and Aleksander Kodelscy. A villa resembling the lowermost pavilion of that funicular was built in the very same year in the Warsaw Żoliborz district. At the time of the People's Republic of Poland tourist traffic developed massively. New holiday resorts were built next to pre-war villas and guesthouses. Music bands such as “Alibabki”, “Skaldowie” and “Niebiesko-Czarni” recorded their video clips in highlander huts or Tatra landscapes. This increase in popularity of Zakopane is shown very well in a collage by Jan Dziaczkowski, who pasted sociorealistic housing estates from Warsaw into a mountain landscape – the residents of those buildings could swarm down Krupówki street and rest on the slopes of the Tatras.
The exhibition, organised thanks to the cooperation between museums in Warsaw and Zakopane, not only presents, but also nurtures relations between the two cities. During the Warsaw edition of the show, a group of five artists from Warsaw selected in an open call will go to a plein-air workshop in the Valley of the Five Polish Lakes. They will bring back concepts for new works to be presented to the public in Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea) park near the Museum of Sculpture in Warsaw.
For those interested in learning more about the historical relations between Warsaw and Zakopane, we have prepared an extensive catalogue containing reproductions of almost 200 objects presented in the exhibition.
Artists: Ludwik Boller, Wojciech Brzega, Henryk Burzec, Leon Chwistek, Jan Cykowski, Józef Czajkowski, Czesław Domaniewski, Jan Dziaczkowski, Kazimierz Fajkosz, Wiktor Górka, Anna Górska, Władysław Hasior, Stanisław Janowski, Wojciech Jastrzębowski, Józef Kandefer, Antoni Kenar, Władysław Klejn, Stanisław Kokesz, Stanisław Kulon, Magda Leja, Rafał Malczewski, Henryk Morel, Roman Olszowski, Igor Omulecki, Stefan Osiecki, Grzegorz Pecuch, Edward Piwowarski, Józef Rajchel, Zbigniew Rogalski, Antoni Rząsa, Rita Sacchetto, Jerzy Sacha, Henryk Schabenbeck, Władysław Skoczylas, Jerzy Skolimowski, Oskar Sosnowski, Zygmunt Sowa- Sowiński, Zofia Stryjeńska, Karol Stryjeński, Jan Szczepkowski, Ludomir Szpadkowski, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Stanisław Witkiewicz, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Jan Koszczyc Witkiewicz, Leon Wyczółkowski, August Zamoyski, Tadeusz i Stefan Zwolińscy, and architectural teams participating in the competition for the shelter at Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea) in 1959, students of the State School of the Wood Industry (later the State High School of Art Techniques) in Zakopane, the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, folk artists and others.
Curator: Katarzyna Kucharska-Hornung
Curatorial cooperation: Julita Dembowska, Karol Hordziej
Exhibition architecture: Agnieszka Tarasiuk
Production: Ewa Kozik
Production cooperation: Dorota Pabel, Joanna Trznadel (The Tatra Museum in Zakopane)
Graphic designs: FONTARTE (Magdalena and Artur Frankowscy)
Communication: Alicja Latkowska, Emilia Pomiankiewicz (The Tatra Museum in Zakopane)
Programme of accompanying events: Julia Łuczywo
The exhibition is co-organised by the National Museum in Warsaw and the Dr Tytus Chałubiński Tatra Museum in Zakopane
Honorary Patronage:
Jacek Krupa – Marshal of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship
Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz – President of the Capital City of Warsaw
Exhibition Partner:
PKP Intercity S.A.
Cooperation:
PTTK Mountain Shelter in the Valley of the Five Polish Lakes
Media patrons:
Polskie Radio, Telewizja Polska, Magazyn Zwierciadło, Gazeta Wyborcza, cojestgrane24
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