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INTRODUCTION
PAINTING
IN POLAND
IN GALLERY
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- A brief summary
By Janusz Wałek
The beginning of Polish art, including painting, can be traced to the
tenth century when Poland officially embraced Christianity in 966, thus
joining the rich culture of Western Europe. During the Romanesque period,
from the eleventh until the middle of the thirteenth century the royal
court, churches and monasteries brought illuminated and beautifully
illustrated manuscripts from the West.
The Gothic era (mid-thirteenth to fourteenth centuries) produced many
religious wall paintings, and panel paintings found mostly in the region
of Kraków, then the capital of Poland. Artisans created painted and
gilded altars, triptychs and polychromy, many of which have survived to
this day. Wit Stwosz, a carver and painter from Nuremberg, one of the
outstanding artists of the late Middle Ages, was active in Poland. His
famous altar in St. Mary’s church in Kraków is one of the glories
of Poland.
The Renaissance (sixteenth century) brought more religious wall and panel
paintings as well as miniatures, influenced by Italian, Flemish and German
trends. The last kings from the Jagiellonian dynasty, Zygmunt I and
Zygmunt II August, fostered the growth of painting during a time when many
foreign artists lived in Kraków, Hans Durer, brother of Albrecht and Hans
Kulmbach among them. Non-religious themes began to appear in Polish arts,
including mythology and history such as the battle of Orsza, as well as
the first portraits of kings, bishops, professors and prominent townsmen.
The Baroque period (seventeenth to mid eighteenth centuries) was one of
intensive growth during which foreign and domestic artists, influenced by
Italian and Flemish masters and encouraged by the Court, raised the level
of Polish painting to a new high. In addition to grand portraits of kings
and magnates, many native artists brought new trends, including realistic
portraits (called “Sarmatian portraits”), showing noblemen,
often endearing in their simplicity. One such trend, not seen outside of
Poland, was the hexagonal coffin portrait, painted on tin plate and
attached to the coffin during the funeral.
The greatest flowering of Polish painting occurred during the reign of the
last king of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski (1764-1795) when famous
foreign painters like Marcello Bacciarelli, Canaletto and Jean Pierre
Norblin de la Gourdaine influenced native artists such as Kazimierz
Wojniakowski and Aleksander Orłowski.
Wieriusz-Kowalski, Alfred (1849-1915)
„Hunter on sleigh”, Oil on wood panel, signed,
9x12.1/4”
Donated by Alexander Mełeń-Korczyński
The period from 1795 until 1918, when Poland was partitioned by Russia,
Prussia and Austria and politically disabled, saw a veritable explosion of
painting expressing strong patriotism and national pride. In the first
half of the nineteenth century, the Romantic era, the art of Piotr
Michałowski (1807-1855) reached a high European ranking; his portrayal of
Napoleonic battle scenes as well as portraits of townsmen, peasants and
Jews can be compared to paintings by the greatest Romantic painters like
Gericault and Delacroix.
Wyczółkowski, Leon (1852-1936)
“Church of the Visitng Nuns in Lublin”,
Watercolor on paper, signed, 12x8.1/4”
Donated by Alexander Mełeń-Korczyński, 1977
Genre and landscape painters celebrated love of country and Polish
folklore and traditions. The most famous representatives of this trend
were Józef Chełmoński (1849-1914), Juliusz Kossak (1824-1899), the
incomparable watercolor painter of horses and seventeenth century war
scenes, Józef Brandt (1847-1915), painter of battles from the same
period. Wojciech Gerson (1831-1901) and Leon Wyczółkowski (1852-1932)
are best known as painters of the Polish Tatra Mountains, where according
to legend, warriors of ages past awaited the signal to rise and fight for
independence.
Paintings of historical scenes were the most popular and highly respected.
Jan Matejko (1838-1893) was the most famous of painters in this genre who
set out to present in a large format the most glorious (Battle of
Grunwald, Kosciuszko at Rac?awice) as well as the most tragic episodes in
the history of Poland. Artur Grottger (1837-1942) was the most widely
reproduced artist whose drawings of the unsuccessful 1863 January Uprising
against the Russians became a sad record of a national tragedy. Matejko
and Grottger exerted a powerful influence on subsequent historical and
patriotic painters including Wojciech Kossak (1857-1942).
Paintings by great Polish artists (Jan Matejko and Józef Brandt), shown
at international exhibitions in Vienna, Paris and Berlin were winning gold
medals, as was Henryk Rodakowski (1829-1894), one of the outstanding
Polish portrait painters. Polish art shown in Europe testified to the rich
culture of a nation which for decades had lived under the rule of alien
powers.
The end of the nineteenth century witnessed a convergence of Polish and
Western European art, particularly in Impressionism, which marked somewhat
of a departure from the historical and patriotic era. Aleksander Gierymski
(1850-1901) was one such impressionist who chose themes from the rococo
era. Władysław Podkowiński (1866-1895) and Józef Pankiewicz
(1867-1940) created beautiful landscapes and scenes in the impressionist
manner, which was one of the main styles of the “Młoda
Polska” (Young Poland) movement in Polish art. It brought major
accomplishments in all fields of Polish art and was represented in the
field of painting by such talents as Stanis?aw Wyspiaƒski
(1869-1907), Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929) and Józef Mehoffer (1869-1946).
Wyspiaƒski and Mehoffer authored many projects in the field of
decoration and glass windows of which only a few came to fruition.
A third representative of the Młoda Polska school, Jacek Malczewski,
began with realistic paintings of Polish deportees to Siberia, and went on
to paint countless symbolic scenes on the themes of national concerns.
The First World War and the birth of the Legions under the command of Józef
Piłsudski brought Poland long awaited freedom and a return to historical
and patriotic themes, much at variance from contemporary Western movements
such as cubism, beginnings of abstraction and so on.
During the interwar period (1918-1939) in free Poland, however, painters
turned away from historical and patriotic themes and embraced Western
European trends such as cubism, futurism, abstractionism and
expressionism.
Stanis?aw Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy), Tytus Czyżewski, Andrzej and
Zbigniew Pronaszko concentrated on the composition and expression of their
paintings. Others emphasized color and abstraction.
The Second World War and the German occupation, which brought Auschwitz
and the Holocaust, influenced many artists to take up again the themes of
patriotism and martyrdom. During the subsequent period of Communist
domination, the party imposed on the artists the rules of
“socrealizm” or social realism. The approved themes were large
edifices, “stakhanovite” workers and prominent
Marxist-Leninists. After the partial political thaw of 1956 artists turned
their eyes to the West again; some, like Jan Lebenstein achieved world
fame.
In 1980 the peaceful revolution brought about by Solidarity and the
martial law that followed caused yet another return to patriotism and
martyrdom themes, which have such a rich tradition in Poland.
Contemporary Polish painting is dominated by photographic and computer
techniques (video artand so on) imitating foreign, mainly American models,
or following Polish traditions of old themes and the art of Jacek
Malczewski. |
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