The Young Poland movement emerged in the 1890s in response to the country’s non-existence for almost a century. It embraced an unprecedented flourishing of applied arts and the revival of crafts, drawing inspiration from nature, history, peasant traditions and craftsmanship to convey patriotic values.
The lavishly illustrated publication charts the rich history of the artists, designers and craftspeople whose schemes came to define Young Poland, including over 250 illustrations of ceramics, furniture, textiles, paper cuttings, wood carvings, tableware, stained glass, book arts, children’s toys and Christmas decorations, as well as domestic, church and civic interior decoration schemes.
The book is being published ahead of a major exhibition on the subject at William Morris Gallery in Autumn 2021.The book argues that Young Poland shared fundamental parallels with the British Arts and Crafts movement, and that it was specifically this Arts and Crafts ethos which fuelled the movement’s patriotic ideology and the nation’s quest to regain Polish independence.
While the diverse visual language of Young Poland was created autonomously, in search of a distinctive cultural style and identity, it simultaneously looked outwards to the rest of Europe including British influences, notably the Pre-Raphaelites and the vision of John Ruskin and William Morris. In fact, as the book reveals, there was a cultural exchange between both nations: in 1848 the members of the newly-founded Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood included the Polish fighter for freedom, Tadeusz Kościuszko, on their list of ‘Immortals’ (inspirational heroes).
As 'Views of Albion' demonstrates there were diverse responses to the Arts and Crafts Movement in Germany, Austria, Poland, Bohemia, Slovakia, Hungary and Southern Slavic countries showing its specific features in the works of artists such as Alfons Mucha, Gustav Klimt and Stanisław Wyspiański.
Artist, designer and writer Wyspiański was the foremost representative of the Young Poland movement and can most closely be considered a counterpart to William Morris. Nature and history were key subjects for both reformers and crucially, they shared firm belief in the equality of fine and decorative arts. Like Morris, Wyspiański was a polymath whose prolific output included wall paintings, decorative patterns, stage sets, textiles, stained glass, book arts, church and domestic interior decoration, as well as achieving acclaim for his writing. Wyspiański was also instrumental in the foundation of the Polish Applied Arts Society in 1901, the equivalent of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society which raised the status of the decorative arts in Britain. Both men were also early champions of the preservation of historic buildings.
Artist, designer and writer Wyspiański was the foremost representative of the Young Poland movement and can most closely be considered a counterpart to William Morris. Nature and history were key subjects for both reformers and crucially, they shared firm belief in the equality of fine and decorative arts. Like Morris, Wyspiański was a polymath whose prolific output included wall paintings, decorative patterns, stage sets, textiles, stained glass, book arts, church and domestic interior decoration, as well as achieving acclaim for his writing. Wyspiański was also instrumental in the foundation of the Polish Applied Arts Society in 1901, the equivalent of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society which raised the status of the decorative arts in Britain. Both men were also early champions of the preservation of historic buildings.
Drawing on nature and the folk tradition, Wyspiański played a significant part in developing a distinctive national style, characterised by a ‘return to crafts’. His most famous decorative scheme is at the Franciscan Church in Kraków (1895–1904), which invites comparisons with the work of Morris & Co. Wyspiański designed the impressive Art Nouveau polychrome paintings and stained-glass windows. Most of the paintings on the walls of the choir and transept consist of geometrical and vegetal motifs, including common Polish flowers. The windows of the chancel feature the four elements and figures of the Blessed Salomea and St Francis. Dominating the entire church is the monumental stained glass window God the Father – Let There Be! situated above the main entrance to the church.
Kraków is home to a proliferation of magnificent churches, the largest stained glass studio in Poland, and resident artistic geniuses in Wyspiański and Józef Mehoffer. Stained glass as an artform reached its pinnacle during Kraków’s Art Nouveau movement. In 1902 S.G. Żeleński (brother of famous writer Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński) founded a studio specifically for stained glass, and attracted the best artists of the generation to work there, including Wyspiański, Mehoffer and Stefan Matejko - the nephew of renowned painter Jan Matejko. After working together during the restoration of the stained glass in St. Mary’s Basilica in 1899, both Mehoffer and Wyspiański turned the force of their creative energies to stained glass, creating some of their most defining works of art in public buildings around Kraków’s Old Town.
Janusz Bogucki was an important Polish critic and art historian, who noted a tendency towards the spiritual in Polish avant-garde art towards the end of the twentieth century. Work by artists such as Jerzy Tchórzewski, Stefan Gierowski and Jerzy Bereś, arose from a need to achieve transcendence and was characterised by a search for the Absolute. The work of these and other artists was, for Bogucki, confirmation of his idea that art should turn to sacrum and he, therefore, invited them to take part in his church-based projects in the early 1980s. Most significant Polish artists participated in these exhibitions. It was also in this period that the work of Jerzy Nowosielski revealed its full fascination with icon paintings through the publication of "Wokół ikony" / "Around the Icon" (1985) and later "Mój Chrystus" / "My Christ" (1993).
Until December 5th, the Museum of Icons in Supraśl has an exhibition titled “Transfiguration. Jerzy Nowosielski, Leon Tarasewicz”. The exhibition presents the “Transfiguration” on Mount Tabor from 1961 by Nowosielski (collection of the Museum of the Catholic University of Lublin) in relation to the “site-specific” concept prepared by Tarasewicz. The artists met many times in a master-student – friend relationship. The personality and work of Nowosielski influenced the formation of Tarasewicz’s artistic personality. During the opening of the exhibition, Anda Rottenberg noted that both Nowosielski and Tarasewicz, in their art, are constantly looking for evidence for the existence of God.
Nowosielski was a Kraków-born Polish painter, graphic artist, scenographer, and illustrator. He was well known for his religious compositions (wall paintings, iconostases, polychromies) in the Orthodox Churches in Kraków, Białystok and Jelenia Góra, the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Cross at Wesoła, the Franciscan Church in the Azory district of Kraków, and the Greek Catholic Church in Lourdes, France. Nowosielski designed and erected the Church of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Biały Bór.
Nowosielski was an outstanding painter, draughtsman, set designer, architect and illustrator, the author of writings on art and a bold and controversial thinker who invoked the theology of the Orthodox Church. His work is proof that, irrespective of the range of media available nowadays, he is still an innovatory figure in the world of painting, where he demonstrated that the surface of a painting continues to be a “field” for conveying a way of seeing the world and an area for communicating with the non-material, metaphysical universe.
Nowosielski’s clearly anti-Cartesian interests materialised in the form of hundreds of paintings, drawings, prints, architectural and set designs and polychromes in churches, (Roman Catholic and Orthodox alike), as well as in the numerous writings and interviews which form both a commentary on his own work and a subversive view on the matter of faith in the broad sense. The thematic sweep of his oeuvre, which goes well beyond the widely perceived concept of nudes, portraits, still lifes and landscapes, is also something that cannot be disregarded.
Alongside icons featuring traditionally conceived images of the saints present in Christian worship, he introduced a new category, ‘secular icons’. To him, both the one and the other were, above all, paintings. Time and again, he emphasised that, regardless of the questions or themes which a work of art tackles, if it is to be good, then it has to touch the sphere of the sacrum.
Nowosielski was a Kraków-born Polish painter, graphic artist, scenographer, and illustrator. He was well known for his religious compositions (wall paintings, iconostases, polychromies) in the Orthodox Churches in Kraków, Białystok and Jelenia Góra, the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Cross at Wesoła, the Franciscan Church in the Azory district of Kraków, and the Greek Catholic Church in Lourdes, France. Nowosielski designed and erected the Church of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Biały Bór.
Nowosielski was an outstanding painter, draughtsman, set designer, architect and illustrator, the author of writings on art and a bold and controversial thinker who invoked the theology of the Orthodox Church. His work is proof that, irrespective of the range of media available nowadays, he is still an innovatory figure in the world of painting, where he demonstrated that the surface of a painting continues to be a “field” for conveying a way of seeing the world and an area for communicating with the non-material, metaphysical universe.
Nowosielski’s clearly anti-Cartesian interests materialised in the form of hundreds of paintings, drawings, prints, architectural and set designs and polychromes in churches, (Roman Catholic and Orthodox alike), as well as in the numerous writings and interviews which form both a commentary on his own work and a subversive view on the matter of faith in the broad sense. The thematic sweep of his oeuvre, which goes well beyond the widely perceived concept of nudes, portraits, still lifes and landscapes, is also something that cannot be disregarded.
Alongside icons featuring traditionally conceived images of the saints present in Christian worship, he introduced a new category, ‘secular icons’. To him, both the one and the other were, above all, paintings. Time and again, he emphasised that, regardless of the questions or themes which a work of art tackles, if it is to be good, then it has to touch the sphere of the sacrum.
Leon Tarasewicz is one of the most intriguing contemporary painters in Poland. He was born in 1957 in Waliły in the Podlachia region. Tarasewicz is an inventive artist who constantly explores new aspects of the old and seemingly predictable discipline of painting. He is fascinated by the works of Nowosielski.
Tarasewicz has presented his works at the CCA Ujazdowski Castle several times (some of them also belong to the Centre’s permanent collection). One of the most interesting projects he took part in there was the show Jerzy Nowosielski - Leon Tarasewicz - Mikołaj Smoczyński (1997), an encounter of three strong artistic personalities, surprisingly linked by the Eastern Orthodox religion. This in turn inspired Tarasewicz to create a site-specific project at the Lublin’s Holy Trinity Chapel.
Tarasewicz has presented his works at the CCA Ujazdowski Castle several times (some of them also belong to the Centre’s permanent collection). One of the most interesting projects he took part in there was the show Jerzy Nowosielski - Leon Tarasewicz - Mikołaj Smoczyński (1997), an encounter of three strong artistic personalities, surprisingly linked by the Eastern Orthodox religion. This in turn inspired Tarasewicz to create a site-specific project at the Lublin’s Holy Trinity Chapel.
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