Nineteenth Century Polish Painting: Valor, Memory and Dreams

13 April–18 June 1989

From 1772 until 1918, Poland did not exist as an independent state. Because of the superior power of neighboring Austria, Russia, and Prussia, Poland was conquered and partitioned several times. The longing felt by the Polish people for a sense of national identity naturally permeated the art produced during the period. Led by a number of Polish émigrés, the work of preserving this sense of Polish national identity fell to artists, poets, and playwrights who were greatly influenced by the cultures of other parts of Europe and by the artistic movements going on there – classicism, romanticism, realism, naturalism, and symbolism. Landscape, history and genre subjects emerged as important vehicles for the preservation of Polish pride, a concept that for the time being, could only survive in the hearts and minds of the people.

The Smart Museum sponsored a symposium in conjunction with the exhibition which will bring together 12 distinguished scholars from throughout the United States and Poland. The speakers will include experts in the history of Polish politics, diplomacy, emigration, art, literature, theater, and music. There was also a recital of Polish art song presented by the internationally acclaimed soprano Juliana Gondek.

Curator and Catalogue: Agnieszka Morawinska, guest curator and curator of Polish Art at the National Museum, Warsaw.

The Chicago presentation of the exhibition of 72 paintings and 13 prints, drawings, and watercolors by Polish artists is sponsored by Avondale Federal Savings Bank. The exhibition was organized by the National Museum in Warsaw and the National Academy of Design and has been generously supported with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States Information Agency, the Open Society Fund, and the Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation. It is also supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. The works have been loaned from the National Museum in Warsaw, the National Museum in Cracow, the Museum of Art in Lodz, the National Museum in Poznan, and the Regional Museum, Bialystok.

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