Under the roofs of Paris

The exhibition presents dozens of paintings that guide the viewer through the paths of the development of Polish art, the discovery of European avant-garde, and its transposition into unique artistic realizations.

The collection opens with the great artistic personalities of Polish painting, primarily from the second half of the 19th century, including Józef Chełmoński, Jan Stanisławski, and Jacek Malczewski. Pragnienie – zatruta studnia by Malczewski or Piotr Michałowski’s sketches of horses are just a few of the masterworks featured in the exhibition.

Another group includes artists whose work was profoundly influenced by the achievements of French and broader European painting, which contributed significantly to their artistic development. These artists, centered around the Krakow-Parisian professor Józef Pankiewicz, include not only members of the Kapist group but also the highly original Simon Mondzain and Jan Rubczak. Eugeniusz Eibisch, with his distinctive vision of color, was another notable figure. The so-called “Polish Parisians” express in their works a mix of fascination with the French milieu, artistic bohemia, and personal nostalgia for small-town provincial life.

Władysław Ślewiński, who promoted the aesthetics of Gauguin among artists such as Gustaw Gwozdecki, Mojżesz Kisling, Henryk Hayden, and Tadeusz Makowski, had an undeniable impact on the colony of artists in Paris. This trend also touched artists like Henryk Epstein, Roman Kramsztyk, Leopold Gottlieb, and Zygmunt Menkes.

A separate part of the exhibition is dedicated to the works of women artists creating by the Seine at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Olga Boznańska is considered the initiator and patron of the Polish female artist community in Paris. Slightly earlier, the talented but prematurely deceased Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowicz paved the way for Polish women artists in Paris. Besides these figures, the exhibition also features Mela Muter, regarded as one of the most outstanding women painters of that era, as well as Alicja Halicka, who contributed significantly to the development of Cubism.

The exhibited works come from the collection of Tom Podl, an American of Polish descent, which mainly comprises works from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In his quest for identity and to close the circle of family wanderings, Tom Podl has amassed what is likely the largest collection of Polish paintings in the United States. The collection includes over 150 paintings and several sculptures by Polish and Jewish artists working in exile, primarily from the so-called École de Paris, a significant phenomenon in Polish and European art. The common denominator for most of the artists in the collection is Paris, which played a role in their artistic journeys to varying extents. This highly valuable and intriguing collection has been on long-term loan to the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola for several years.

Exhibition curator: Anna Szlązak