Capists - a manifesto of color and modernity
October 19 – November 30, 2008
Exhibition prepared by the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola. Scenario by Anna Szlazak.
The exposition in the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola is part of a series of exhibitions showing the painterly search of artists of the 20-year interwar period. Capism – colorism is one of the trends that determined a certain style of Polish painting not only before World War II, but also after it.
In 1924, a group of students from the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, almost spontaneously went to Paris. They called themselves, somewhat jokingly, to raise funds for the trip – the Paris Committee, abbreviated to KP (meaning Capists). A dozen different artists, honed their talents, then transplanted their love of the art of Cézanne, Bonnard, the Impressionists, but also a deep respect for the great tradition of European painting.They survived in Paris thanks to an extraordinary friendship, which was not broken by their different temperaments and adversities.
The exhibition captures more than 40 works by the founders of the Capist group of those who gave meaning and program to the movement, developed concepts and painting solutions.These are mainly works from the first period of their career, when they were in Paris learning about new trends in art and crystallizing their program and work in the country before 1939.
However, there are several examples of late paintings by Cybis or Rudzka, which prove their fidelity to the doctrine of colorism. The problem of color pursued by Jan Cybis, the warm light in Hanna Rudzka-Cybisowa, or the unique expression of Zygmunt Waliszewski, bring the group’s creative explorations closer. The career of Piotr Potworowski, whose works from the beginning were distinguished by extraordinary decorativeness, or Artur Nacht-Samborski, who liked to use solids, followed a slightly different course.
The group of Kapists also included: Dorota Berlinerbrau-Seydenmannowa, Seweryn Boraczok, Józef Jarema, Janusz Strzałecki, Janina Przecławska-Strzałecka, Stanisław Szczepański, Marian Szczyrbuła, and Józef Czapski, who, along with Cybis, was the main theoretician of the group.
Kapism is not only a color resolution of a painting, it is also a modern approach to the structure of a painting, it breaks the rigid rules of academic painting, and finally it is a breath of Parisian new art (for the Kapists were often called “Polish Post-Impressionists”).
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog.
Exhibition prepared by the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola.Scenario by Anna Szlazak.
