Polish artists and the sea

Jan Stanisławski was a leading artist representing Art Nouveau in Polish painting; he was also a great teacher for a whole generation of artists who had a significant impact on developments in Polish painting in the first part of the 20th century. This year it has been one hundred years since his death. Because of this anniversary we invite you to our exhibition “Maritime Paths of Stanisławski’s followers”, which opens on 26th May in the Granaries (Spichlerze) on Ołowianka Island.

Jan Stanisławski (1860-1907) was a student of Wojciech Gerson and Emil Garolus-Duran. The artist created his art in Art Nouveau aesthetics, referring also to Symbolism for the content, with its mysterious, melancholic style. He also worked for Chimera, at the time a leading literature-artistic magazine, for which he created unforgettable pictures. As a professor of the Cracow Art School he radically changed methods of teaching of young painters, taking them outside for open-air painting.

During the CMM exhibition organised to commemorate the painter’s death we are showing the maritime landscapes painted by the five most outstanding students of Stanisławski: Stanisław Kamocki (1875-1944), Stefan Filipkiewicz (1879-1944), Stanisław Czajkowski (1878-1954), Henryk Szczygliński (1881-1944) and Iwan Trusz (1869-1941).

There are many elements in their paintings which can be traced back in the master’s atelier. They painted mainly in the open air, in direct contact with nature. The Polish Maritime Museum collected landscapes of the Polish coast, created during their vacation visits to the Baltic Sea. We can see picturesque views from Hel, Puck, wide panoramas of beaches in Gdynia and Orłowo, and also a series of Jastrzębia Góra beach at various times of the day. The Baltic Sea is not the only sea shown during the exhibition. We can see pictures from the Netherlands, where Stanisław Czajkowski stayed during his vacation. Others were painted by his colleagues who travelled along the Mediterranean Sea, from Dubrovnic to Cannes. The exhibition is completed by pictures presenting riverbanks from central Poland, mainly of the Vistula river.

The pictures presented in the exhibition come from the collections of:
– The Polish Maritime Museum in Gdańsk,
– The National Museum in Cracow,
– The National Museum in Szczecin,
– The National Museum in Warsaw,
– The National Museum in Kielce,
– The Vistula River Museum in Kazimierz Dolny,
– Private art collectors, including: Andrzej Mrowiec and Leonard Pietraszak

We also acknowledge the contribution from: Sopocki Auction House, Rempex, Pasja Antique Shop in Cracow.

The objective of the long-term programme “Polish Artists and the Sea” is to comprehensively present the themes of the sea and rivers in Polish art. It is a series of annual exhibitions organised by CMM always in summer, enabling maritime art to be shown to a broad audience as a concise trend in the background of artistic life in our country rather than single, coincidental events, often neglected and forgotten in the inflow of other information. By repeating the event we may better promote maritime art and the monographic nature of every exhibition enables comparison between various schools and artists. The “Maritime Paths of Stanisławski’s followers” is the fifth exhibition in the series. The official opening traditionally takes place during the Baltic Science Festival. Similarly to our previous exhibitions in the series, the catalogue produced in our Museum accompanies the exhibition.

“Maritime Paths of Stanisławski’s followers”
The Granaries 26.05.2007 – 16.09.2007