145

In 2024, the National Museum in Krakow celebrates another, 145th anniversary of the institution's establishment. On this occasion, we invite you to a small commemorative and anniversary exhibition in the “Malarnia” room in the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice). We want to recall the history of the creation of the first national museum institution in the Polish lands under partition.

The story of the Museum is a complex and multi-threaded one. We will recall the people who created the National Museum, including the great Polish collectors of art, national memorabilia and monuments of material culture. We all know the merits of the Czapski family, Edward Goldstein, Feliks Jasieński and Erazm Barącz. Our current collection is the result of the generosity of the entire society, including many collectors and artists. The development of the institution was significantly influenced by socio-political changes: regaining independence, two world wars and the period of the Polish People’s Republic. From 1879, the Museum was combined with the Cloth Hall; in the following decades, as the collections multiplied, the Museum was hosted in the Szołayski Tenement House (1902), the Emeryk Hutten-Czapski Museum (1903) and the Jan Matejko House (1908). In the interwar period, construction of the modern seat of the "New Building" began in Krakow (1934), and it took another half a century to complete the work. In the post-war reality, after the liquidation of municipal and private museums, the Museum became home to part of the collection of the Museum of Artistic Industry (former Museum of Science and Industry) and the Czartoryski Museum (1950). In the fourth quarter of the 20^th century, further branches of the Museum were established – the biographical houses: Stanisław Wyspiański (1983), Józef Mehoffer (1986) and the Zakopane “Atma”, dedicated to Karol Szymanowski (1976). The continuation of this concept is the opening of the Józef Czapski Pavilion (2016).

Our masterpieces fill the permanent exhibitions in all branches. In “Malarnia” we endeavour to tell the history of the Museum by showing works from storage, lesser known or rarely shown. Each of them is a separate story about an event, collection, branch, director or artist. The story of the National Museum in Krakow.

Alicja Kilijańska
Monika Paś