Gallery of Polish Modern Art 1800-1945

Immediately recognizable and lesser-known works from the painting and sculpture collection of the Silesian Museum in Katowice make up a fascinating panorama of aesthetic phenomena from the early and mature modernity. Its beginning is marked by the first decades of the 19th century, influenced by the effects of the French Revolution, industrialization, and urbanization. The end, on the other hand, consists of the dynamic years of great modernizations, suppressed by the outbreak of the Second World War.

The exhibition's narrative is created by successive, mutually complementary or contrasting issues, characterized in knowledge compendiums or formulated for the project's needs, such as: classicism, romanticism, realism, impressionism, symbolism, Young Poland's moodiness, ethnophilia (folkmania) and expressiveness, École de Paris, avant-gardism, traditionalism, colorism, art déco, catastrophism. A deliberate deviation from chronology is the juxtaposition – in dialogue – of works representing historicism and Art Nouveau, to encourage visitors to reflect on the identity of Central European cultural circles.

It was also considered important to present the geography of Polish artistic life during the partitions and in the era of the Second Polish Republic. The selection of works is thus intended to show the results of the activity of alumni and representatives of various creative centers: Paris, Munich, and Vienna, and at the same time Kraków, Warsaw, Poznań, Łódź, Vilnius, Lviv, and Katowice.

To what extent has this heritage remained modern? What actually constitutes modernity and how much is it determined by time, place, and historical conditions?

Let the labyrinth of the gallery be like a cabinet of mirrors, reflecting the existence of several previous generations. And moreover, ourselves – for example, the ways in which we engage with the presented works, the sensitivity and attentiveness we are capable of today.

Exhibition Curator: dr Michał Burdziński