The works of Jacek Malczewski from the collection of the Lviv Art Gallery
October 18-November 17, 2002
The largest exhibition of Jacek Malczewski’s works ever shown outside the Lviv Gallery has been hosted in Poland since June 2002.
After its presentation in Sopot, where it became an artistic event for residents and visitors to the Coast, it was exhibited at the castle in Książ near Walbrzych, and on October 18 it came to Stalowa Wola.
The Stalowa Wola Regional Museum is the only institution in the area from Malopolska province to Lublin province where the exhibition could be seen. The 50 oil paintings, 15 watercolors and drawings by Jacek Malczewski provide an overview of his output from various periods of his life, starting with his earliest painting “Mother of God” – painted by the 20-year-old artist, and including such well-known works as “Poisoned Well” and “Self-Portrait with Fauns.”
The painter, recognized as one of the most original Polish artists, functions in the popular consciousness as an illustrator of Słowacki’s works. These illustrations were reproduced in school textbooks for years. The second determinant of his perception are the motifs of fauns, chimeras and russets, the symbolism of passing, death
Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929) was first educated in Cracow, including under Jan Matejko, with whom he came into conflict due to a difference in artistic attitudes. For this reason, he left for Paris and took up studies at the École des Beaux Arts in the studio of Ernest Lehman. After a year, however, he returned to Matejko’s studio. In the following years he traveled to Italy and also to Turkey as a draughtsman for Karol Lanckoroński. For many years he was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, and in the period 1912-1914 even its rector.
His art aroused great interest and considerable controversy from the beginning. Several books and a host of major and minor articles have been written about him, and more than a dozen catalogs have been published – a testament to the lively reception his work has provoked for more than 100 years.
The art he created has the undeniable characteristics of a masterpiece,” wrote Pawel Huelle about Malczewski, discussing the Lviv-Sopot exhibition in ‘Rzeczpospolita’. – The fact that it grows on the one hand from the Polish dream of freedom, a fearful rebellion and innumerable sufferings, and on the other embraces with its wing the mystery of death, fate, eroticism, madness and art – makes it ambiguous and rich.
The exhibition in Stalowa Wola was presented from October 18 to November 17 at our museum. It was viewed by more than 8,000 visitors during those days.
