Poland hasn’t been on the map of Europe for over a century, the Grand Duchy of Poznań – stripped of any remnants of autonomy – is ravaged by brutal Germanisation, while Congress Poland is terrorised by Russification. The one remaining haven of Polishness is Galicia, forming a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and granted a relative autonomy in 1867. Kraków, the informal capital of Poles stripped of their own nationhood, is at once a haven of conservative middle-classes and a hub of artistic bohemia.
The exhibition Kraków 1900 at Szołayski House takes us back in time to when the city aspired to the title of Poland’s Athens and the country’s spiritual capital. We will see paintings and sculptures from the collections of the National Museum in Krakow, as well as posters, prints, ceramics, clothes and textiles, everyday objects and archival photos. The exhibition includes works by the most important Polish artists from the turn of the 20th century: Teodor Axentowicz, Olga Boznańska, Julian Fałat, Konstanty Laszczka, Jacek Malczewski, Kazimierz Sichulski, Piotr Stachiewicz, Jan Stanisławski, Włodzimierz Tetmajer, Stanisław Witkiewicz, Wojciech Weiss, Witold Wojtkiewicz and Leon Wyczółkowski. The exhibits tell a story about Kraków and its communities, traditionalist burghers, artists and their muses, the city’s bohemia and its decadent night life. There will also be themes of politics, labour, trade, the emerging popularity of sport and the intelligentsia’s growing peasant-mania. (Dorota Dziunikowska, “Karnet” monthly)
