Exhibition “Conductor X Muse from Radom. To Andrzej Wajda on the 100th Anniversary of His Birth and the 10th Anniversary of His Death”

The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue, a kind of anniversary tribute, aim to show the ties between Andrzej Wajda and his native Radom, of which he has been an Honorary Citizen since 2001. The main axis of the display consists of the director's drawings and paintings held in the collection of the Jacek Malczewski Museum, most of them created in Radom under German occupation, together with numerous family keepsakes from the collections of the Museum of Japanese Art and Technology “Manggha” in Kraków, as well as film posters, publications and catalogues. Added to this is an extensive narrative thread about the artists and teachers whom the young A. Wajda met in Radom and with whom he later maintained lifelong bonds of friendship: Wacław Dobrowolski, Wiktor Langner, Adam Stalony-Dobrzański, Stanisław Gronkowski, Eugeniusz Pisarek and Elżbieta Jackiewiczowa. One of the most precious artefacts on display, around which a separate story is built, is the sabre of the director's father, Jakub Wajda, captain of the 72nd Infantry Regiment in Radom. It lay buried in the ground for many years, and Andrzej Wajda recovered it in remarkable circumstances towards the end of his life.

The exhibition “Conductor X Muse…” is conceived, in its first part, as a story of the formative period of the young artist, which coincided with the Second World War. The war shaped an entire generation of creators, who over the following years worked through its trauma and reckoned with a painful past, both on an individual level and in the fate of the whole nation. Andrzej Wajda, belonging to the generation of the “Kolumbowie” (the Columbuses), drew in many of his films on the times of Nazi and Soviet occupation. As the most outstanding representative of the Polish School of Film, he created canonical works of culture, without which it is hard today to imagine our perception of the Second World War, with its tragedy and hecatomb, but also with individual human dramas, moral dilemmas and difficult, most often painful choices.

The first part of the exhibition presents the work of a young boy from Radom, fascinated by painting and drawing, who wished, despite unfavourable circumstances, to develop his artistic talents. An important element is also the documentary context of the works on show: the Wajda family keepsakes, namely certificates, photographs, documents, a school album and the touching marnik made by the father, Jakub Wajda, for his sons. What “lights up” these works, mostly executed on cheap material with cheap paints (which, year by year, affects their appearance and fading colours), are the paintings from our Museum's collection chosen by me, gifts from Krystyna Zachwatowicz-Wajda and Andrzej Wajda, created by professional and recognised artists. They were made in various poetics and techniques, yet together they are beautiful.

The second part of the exhibition presents a selection of posters for Andrzej Wajda's films, gathered for years by the Warsaw collector, art critic and exhibition curator Jerzy Brukwicki. Thanks to the support of the Mazovian Voivodeship Local Government, we were able to purchase them for our collection. These are largely works by the most outstanding Polish artists, recognised around the world: the creators of the Polish school of poster art (Roman Cieślewicz, Franciszek Starowieyski, Waldemar Świerzy, Wojciech Zamecznik) and those who continued their achievements and successes (Marcin Mroszczak, Rafał Olbiński, Andrzej Pągowski, Wiktor Sadowski, Wiesław Wałkuski).

Exhibition curator: Marcin Kępa

The following have taken honorary patronage of the exhibition:

Marshal of the Senate Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska

Minister of Culture and National Heritage Marta Cienkowska

Marshal of the Mazovian Voivodeship Adam Struzik

Mrs Krystyna Zachwatowicz-Wajda