Portrait, Landscape, Still Life. From Siemiradzki to Czapski The Krzysztof Musiał Collection

18.12.2007 – 17.02.2008 Portrait, Landscape, Still Life. From Siemiradzki to Czapski The Krzysztof Musiał Collection

Zachęta National Gallery of Art

curator: Julia Leopold
exhibition design: Grzegorz Rytel

On several occasions has the Zachęta Gallery previously played host to well-known private and museum collections of art. Previous guest collections have included, for example: the Tom Podel collection, the collection of works from the Lviv Gallery of Art and the works of Józef Czapski from the Swiss Richard Aeschlimann collection. The next outstanding collection of works of art that we are to present is the impressive set of works gathered over the last few years in the collection of Polish art established by Krzysztof Musiał. This is one of the biggest and most interesting private collections of Polish art, comprising over 700 works dating from the mid 19th century to contemporary times. A wide selection of works from this collection were presented in the autumn of this year in the National Museum in Wrocław at an exhibition entitled, Records of Changes, as well as at the Zamek Książąt Pomorskich in Szczeciń, with the collection then to be presented at the National Museum in Cracow. At the exhibition in Zachęta, which is this year’s Christmas present to the Zachęta public, we have selected works from the period up to the Second World War; this means the chance to the see the painting and sculpture of such outstanding artists as: Olga Boznańska, Józef Czapski, Eugeniusz Eibisch, Julian Fałat, Wojciech Gerson, Wojciech Kossak, Józef Pankiewicz, Henryk Siemiradzki, Wojciech Weiss, Leon Wyczółkowski and Stanisław Wyspiański, artists whose names are permanently inscribed in the canons of the history of Polish art, and whose works have had a profound impact on the most significant developments in modern art, such as impressionism, expressionism and cubism.                       

Krzysztof Musiał is a graduate of the Warsaw University of Technology and the INSEAD Business School in Fontainebleau. Founder and former president (1990–2001) of ABC Data, one of Poland’s leading IT companies. His artistic interests are very broad, spanning theatre, ballet, opera, music, and the visual arts. His interest in rock music resulted in, among other things, collaboration with the Polish Radio. He is a sponsor of the New York Metropolitan Opera, and has for years been supporting various artistic projects in Poland and abroad: exhibitions, concerts, theatre and opera shows, master’s courses for young singers, writing projects, as well as public museum collections in Poland. Laureate of the ‘Mecenas Kultury 2001’ competition. The Musiał collection, presented now at Zachęta and previously at the National Museum in Wrocław, includes some 700 works, including some 450 paintings, some 40 sculptures and spatial forms, and around 250 works on paper – painter’s sketches, painting and sculpture designs, as well as drawings. The collection has been formed in the last dozen or so years, and the majority of the items have been purchased abroad.               

Zachęta has already hosted a number of important collections, whether public or private. These included, among other things, the Tom Podl collection, the collection of the Lvov Gallery of Art, or the paintings of Józef Czapski from the Swiss collection of Richard Aeschlimann. This time we are presenting Krzysztof Musiał’s collection – one of the largest and most interesting private collections of Polish art created in the recent years. The collection includes over 700 works spanning the period from the 1850s to the present. A broad selection of works from the Musiał collection was presented at the National Museum in Wrocław this autumn in the exhibition Zapisy przemian, and at the Pomeranian Princes’ Castle in Szczecin, and it will subsequently be shown at the National Museum in Cracow and the National Museum in Poznań. The Zachęta show, which is our Christmas gift to the public, presents the chronologically earlier part of the collection, ending at WWII. We show paintings, sculptures, and drawings of artists who are part of the history of Polish art, and whose works follow, or share an affinity with, the crucial trends of contemporary art: impressionism, expressionism, cubism, or fauvism. The collection’s newer part can be viewed at Galeria aTAK on Krakowskie Przedmieście 16/18.

In the first, middle room we show mainly realistic and academic 19th-century painting, the works of Wojciech Kossak, Henryk Siemiradzki, or Władysław Podkowiński, as well as later works, formally and thematically rooted in the 19th century but already showing modernistic tendencies. These works make references to new trends, such as impressionism in Józef Pankiewicz’s painting, or expressionism in Konrad Krzyżanowski’s. The bulk of this part of the collection is made up by a selection of post-impressionist paintings by Olga Boznańska including a number of still lifes and several portraits, including the masterpiece Portrait of Franciszek Siedlecki.

In the following gallery we shall find paintings and sculpturesopening a new chapter in history: Leopold Gottlieb’s cubistic paintings, Roman Kramsztyk’s and Eugeniusz Zak’s post-Cézanne landscapes, Andrzej Pronaszko’s and Zygmunt Waliszewski’s geometric and synthetic compositions, the sculptures of Bolesław Biegas and Henryk Kuna, or the paintings of Mela Muter, full if impressionistic charm. Concluding this part of the collection are three post-war paintings by Józef Czapski – challenging the premises of Kapism with their untypical colour ranges, crops, and formal solutions. Watercolours, pastels, drawings, and sketches selected from the large collection are shown in Mały Salon.       

artists: Bolesław Biegas, Wacław Borowski, Olga Boznańska, Leon Chwistek, Józef Czapski, Xawery Dunikowski, Eugeniusz Eibisch, Julian Fałat, Wojciech Gerson, Leopold Gottlieb, Gustaw Gwozdecki, Alicja Halicka, Alfons Karpiński, Wojciech Kossak, Roman Kramsztyk, Konrad Krzyżanowski, Henryk Kuna, Józef Tadeusz Makowski, Rafał Malczewski, Louis Marcoussis, Józef Mehoffer, Zygmunt Menkes, Piotr Michałowski, Mela Muter, Elie Nadelman, Tymon Niesiołowski, Józef Pankiewicz, Władysław Podkowiński, Andrzej Pronaszko, Ferdynand Ruszczyc, Kazimierz Sichulski, Henryk Siemiradzki, Władysław Ślewiński, Jan Stanisławski, Zygmunt Waliszewski, Eugeniusz Waniek, Wacław Wąsowicz, Joachim Weingart, Wojciech Weiss, Marek Włodarski, Jan Wojnarski, Witold Wojtkiewicz, Leon Wyczółkowski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Eugeniusz Zak, August Zamoyski

Information

Portrait, Landscape, Still Life. From Siemiradzki to Czapski
The Krzysztof Musiał Collection
18.12.2007 – 17.02.2008

Zachęta National Gallery of Art
pl. Małachowskiego 3, 00-916 Warsaw
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sponsors of the gallery: Epson, Netia, Klima San
partner in the children’s programme Bank Zachodni WBK
sponsors of the opening ceremony: A.Blikle, Freixenet
official carrier: PLL LOT
media patronage: Gazeta Wyborcza, Polityka, Zwierciadło, Polish Market, TVP, TOK FM, The Warsaw Voice, Onet.pl, empik