Young Poland

{{Short description|1890–1918 modernist arts movement in Poland}}

{{For|a Polish revolutionary organization|Young Poland (organization)}}

File:Art Palace in Kraków, Poland, September 2019, 01.jpg, in Kraków Old Town]]

Young Poland ({{langx|pl|Młoda Polska}} {{IPA|pl|ˈmwɔ.da ˈpɔl.ska||LL-Q809 (pol)-Olaf-Młoda Polska.wav}}) was a modernist period in Polish visual arts, literature and music, covering roughly the years between 1890 and 1918. It was a result of strong aesthetic opposition to the earlier ideas of Positivism. Young Poland promoted trends of decadence, neo-romanticism, symbolism, Impressionism.{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Young-Poland-movement |title=Young Poland movement |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=25 April 2020}}

Many of the exhibitions were held at the Palace of Art, also known as "Secession" (Secesja), the headquarters of the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts, in Kraków Old Town.{{Cite web |url=https://archpasja.com/2014/07/13/secesja-w-krakowie-cz-1/ |title=Secesja w Krakowie – cz.1.|language=pl |access-date=2020-09-06 |archive-date=2020-09-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923065907/https://archpasja.com/2014/07/13/secesja-w-krakowie-cz-1/ |url-status=dead }}

Philosophy

The term was coined in a manifesto by writer {{Interlanguage link multi|Artur Górski (art critic)|pl|3=Artur Górski (krytyk literacki)|lt=Artur Górski}}, published in 1898 in the Kraków newspaper Życie (Life), and was soon adopted in all of partitioned Poland by analogy to similar terms such as Young Germany, Young Belgium, Young Scandinavia, etc.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DHy7AAAAIAAJ&q=m%C5%82oda+polska+termin+artur+g%C3%B3rski&pg=PA51 |title=National Style and Nation-state: Design in Poland from the Vernacular Revival to the International Style |isbn=9780719037276 |access-date=25 April 2020|last1=Crowley |first1=David |year=1992 |publisher=Manchester University Press }}

Literature

Image:Stanisław Wyspiański, Autoportret.jpg self-portrait in soft pastel, 1902]]

Polish literature of the period was based on two main concepts. The earlier was a typically modernist disillusionment with the bourgeoisie, its life style and its culture. Artists following this concept also believed in decadence, an end of all culture, conflict between humans and their civilization, and the concept of art as the highest value (art for art's sake). Authors who followed this concept included Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Stanisław Przybyszewski, Wacław Rolicz-Lieder and Jan Kasprowicz.

A later concept was a continuation of romanticism, and as such is often called neo-romanticism.{{cite web|url=https://sztetl.org.pl/de/glossar/polska-literatura-mloda-polska |title=Polska, literatura, Młoda Polska |website=Virtual Shtetl {{!}} POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews |access-date=25 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211025134706/https://sztetl.org.pl/de/glossar/polska-literatura-mloda-polska|archive-date=25 October 2021}} The group of writers following this idea was less organised and the writers themselves covered a large variety of topics in their writings: from sense of mission of a Pole in Stefan Żeromski's prose, through social inequality described by Władysław Reymont and Gabriela Zapolska to criticism of Polish society and Polish history by Stanisław Wyspiański.

Writers of this period include also: Wacław Berent, Jan Kasprowicz, Jan Augustyn Kisielewski, Antoni Lange, Jan Lemański, Bolesław Leśmian, Tadeusz Miciński, Andrzej Niemojewski, Franciszek Nowicki, Władysław Orkan, Artur Oppman, Włodzimierz Perzyński, Tadeusz Rittner, Wacław Sieroszewski, Leopold Staff, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Maryla Wolska, Eleonora Kalkowska, Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński, and Jerzy Żuławski.

Music

In music, the term Young Poland is applied to an informal group of composers that include Karol Szymanowski, Grzegorz Fitelberg, Ludomir Różycki as well as Mieczysław Karłowicz and Apolinary Szeluto.{{cite web |url=https://www.rmfclassic.pl/encyklopedia/moda-polska.html |title=MŁODA POLSKA |access-date=25 April 2020 |archive-date=24 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210524094952/https://www.rmfclassic.pl/encyklopedia/moda-polska.html |url-status=dead }} Almost all educated by Zygmunt Noskowski, the group was under strong influence of neoromanticism in music and especially of foreign composers such as Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner and those belonging to The Mighty Handful group, e.g. Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Visual arts

In the period of Young Poland there were no overwhelming trends in Polish art. The painters and sculptors tried to continue the romantic traditions with new ways of expression popularised abroad. The most influential trend was Art Nouveau, although Polish artists started to seek also some form of a national style (including styl zakopiański or the Zakopane style). Both sculpture and painting were also heavily influenced by all forms of symbolism.{{cite book |last=Benton |first=Charlotte |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QjtehV6dFZ4C&dq=%22Konstanty+Laszczka%22&pg=PA294 |title=Figuration/abstraction: stratégies for public sculpture in Europe, 1945-1968 |publisher=Ashgate |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7546-0693-2}}

Stanisław Wyspiański was a poet, playwright and painter. His drawing, mainly in pastel, stylized to the extreme flowers, landscapes and portraits of children and actors in a testament to the influence of the Vienna Secession, and perhaps also of Japanese art. He also designed stained glass windows, furniture, carpets depicting religious scenes and floral motifs and with stylized lines and bright colors. His stained glass work can be seen in the Wawel Cathedral and the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi of Krakow, and he also painted the mural of the Basilica of St. Mary of Krakow.

File:Stanisław Wyspiański - Portret Lizy Pareńskiej (wśród pelargonii).jpg

File:Wyspiański Irises.jpg

File:Wyspiański Madonna and Child.jpg

File:Kraków - Church of St. Francis - Stained glass 01.jpg

File:Krakow Medical Society house, Apollo-stained glass window design by Stanisław Wyspiański, 4 Radziwillowska street, Krakow, Poland.jpg

File:Stanisław Wyspiański - John Casimir's Oath - MNK II-b-516 - National Museum Kraków.jpg

File:Stanisław Wyspiański, Macierzyństwo.jpg

File:Stanisław Wyspiański Śpiący Staś 1902.jpg

Józef Mehoffer (1869–1946) was a painter and illustrator, but it was his work as a glassmaker that earned him his fame. He made the stained glass windows for the Fribourg Cathedral, as well as for a dozen other churches in Europe. He collaborated with Wyspiański on the polychromes of the Basilica of St. Mary of Krakow and on the stained glass windows of the Chapel of the Holy Cross in the Wawel Cathedral.

File:Mehoffer self-portrait (1897).jpg

File:Józef Mehoffer - Trzej aniołowie.jpg

File:Jozef Mehoffer - Witraz - MNK IV-Sz-2346 (20635).jpg

File:Józef Mehoffer - Muza.jpg

File:Józef Mehoffer, Dziwny ogród.jpg

File:Józef Mehoffer - Kawiarka.jpg

The most notable representatives of Polish symbolism are Władysław Podkowiński (1866–1899) and Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929). The latter placed his research in a national current and was particularly interested in the relationship between art and artist. He addressed the theme of the creator's duty in relation to the national past and reflected on the influence of art in real life. For nearly half a century, Malczewski developed cycles and series, mixing his own symbols with those of tradition, whose meaning he changed with new compositions.

File:Władysław Podkowiński Autoportret 1887 Muzeum Śląskie Katowice Poland.jpg

File:"Szał uniesień" (Frenzy of Exultations) Władysław Podkowiński , 1863.jpg

File:Jacek Malczewski - Autoportret 1908.jpg

File:Malczewski Polish Hamlet.jpg

File:Malczewski Jacek Artysta i chimera.jpg

File:Malczewski Jacek Do slawy.jpg

File:Malczewski Jacek Nieznana nuta.jpg

However, painting was dominated by French Impressionism. Artists were interested in rural life and exalted landscapes and peasants. Women and children were common subjects.

Teodor Axentowicz (1859-1938),

File:Axentowicz Autoportret 1898.jpg

File:Axentowicz Italian florist.jpg

File:Teodor Axentowicz Nad morzem.jpg

File:Teodor-Axentowicz Na-Gromniczną.jpg

File:Teodor Axentowicz Zaduszki 1913.jpg

File:Teodor Axentowicz - Kołomyjka.jpg

File:Teodor Axentowicz - Wiosna.jpg

Olga Boznańska (1865-1940),

File:Olga Boznańska 1893 Autoportret 1893.jpg

File:Olga Boznańska - Girl with Chrysanthemums - MNK II-b-1032 - National Museum Kraków.jpg

File:Boznańska Grandma's birthday.jpg

File:Olga Boznańska - Wnętrze pracowni.jpg

File:Olga Boznańska 1890 Bretonka.jpg

File:Olga Boznańska 1888 Cyganka.jpg

File:Olga Boznańska 1902 Macierzynstwo.jpg

and Józef Pankiewicz (1866-1940).

File:Józef Pankiewicz - Self-portrait - MP 893 MNW - National Museum in Warsaw.jpg

File:Józef Pankiewicz - Portret dziewczynki w czerwonej sukience.jpg

File:Pankiewicz Stefan Polczyński.jpg

File:Józef Pankiewicz - Jew with a basket - MP 132 - National Museum in Warsaw.jpg

File:Józef Pankiewicz - Red carnations (Still life with a blue vase) - MP 664 MNW - National Museum in Warsaw.jpg

File:Józef Pankiewicz - Jasieński przy fortepianie 1908.jpg

File:Józef Pankiewicz - Harbour at Saint-Tropez - MNK II-b-855 - National Museum Kraków.jpg

Post-impressionist realism was represented by the paintings of Władysław Ślewiński (1856-1918),

File:Ślewiński Self-portrait in a straw hat.jpg

File:Ślewiński Władysław, Czesząca się, 1897.jpg

File:Ślewiński Two Breton women.jpg

File:Władysław Ślewiński - Sea in springtime - MP 123 MNW - National Museum in Warsaw.jpg

File:Władysław Ślewiński - Maki.jpg

File:Władysław Ślewiński - Orphan from Poronin - MP 102 - National Museum in Warsaw.jpg

File:Ślewiński Female nude from the back.jpg

Leon Wyczółkowski (1852-1936),

File:Wyczółkowski Self-portrait in Chinese gown.jpg

File:Leon Wyczółkowski - Japonka.jpg

File:Wyczółkowski Fisherman.jpg

File:Leon Wyczółkowski - Plowing in the Ukraine - MNK II-b-831 - National Museum Kraków.jpg

File:Leon Wyczółkowski - Corn-Field - MNK II-b-188 - National Museum Kraków.jpg

File:Leon Wyczółkowski - Kopanie buraków I.jpg

Ferdynand Ruszczyc (1870-1936),

File:Ferdynand Ruszczyc - Hiddensee (1897).jpg

File:Ferdynand Ruszczyc. Pierwsza komunia.jpg

File:Ferdynand Ruszczyc - Pustka (1901).jpg

File:Ferdynand Ruszczyc - Old apple trees - MP 394 - National Museum in Warsaw.jpg

File:Ferdynand Ruszczyc - Landscape – stream - MP 456 MNW - National Museum in Warsaw.jpg

and Wojciech Weiss (1875-1950).

File:Wojciech Weiss - The Demon - MNK II-b-1476 - National Museum Kraków.jpg

File:Wojciech Weiss - Portrait of artist’s mother - MP 837 MNW - National Museum in Warsaw.jpg

File:Wojciech Weiss - Czesząca się 1898.jpg

File:Wojciech Weiss - Male Nude - MNK II-b-1037 - National Museum Kraków.jpg

File:Wojciech Weiss - Model - MNK II-b-183 - National Museum Kraków.jpg

Witold Wojtkiewicz (1879-1909) et Konrad Krzyżanowski (1872-1922) represented the expressionist tendency.

File:Wojtkiewicz Tillage.jpg

File:Witold Wojtkiewicz - Fantasy - MNK II-b-205 - National Museum Kraków.jpg

File:Konrad Krzyżanowski - Painter Roman Laskowski at the table, sketch - MP 14 MNW - National Museum in Warsaw.jpg

File:Konrad Krzyżanowski - By candlelight - MP 194 - National Museum in Warsaw.jpg

File:Konrad Krzyżanowski - Evening in the studio, sketch - MP 15 MNW - National Museum in Warsaw.jpg

File:Konrad Krzyżanowski - Studium portretowe Emilii Wysockiej.jpg

Other painters of this period include Stanislaw Mas-owski, Fryderyk Pautsch, Kazimierz Sichulski, Stanislaw D-bicki, Wadysaw Jarocki, Edward Oku, Wovzimierz Tetmajer and Jan Stanislawwski.

Notes and references

Dobrowolski Tadeusz, Sztuka Młodej Polski, Warszawa 1963.
Słownik artystów polskich i obcych w Polsce działających. Malarze, rzeźbiarze, graficy, t. II, Wrocław 1975 (Urszula Leszczyńska).
Puciata-Pawłowska Joanna, Konstanty Laszczka, Siedlce 1980.

External links

{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/events/matejko-father-of-young-poland-talk-in-polish-10-06-2021|author=Griffin, Julia|publisher=National Gallery London|title=Matejko, Father of 'Young Poland', a talk by Julia Griffin|date=2021|access-date=7 May 2021|archive-date=7 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507151910/https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/events/matejko-father-of-young-poland-talk-in-polish-10-06-2021|url-status=dead}}
[https://culture.pl/en/artist/stanislaw-wyspianski Stanisław Wyspiański, biography from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute ]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20110518152840/http://www.filg.uj.edu.pl/~wwalecki/collegium.php?seria=42&pozycja=77&wersja=en First review of Wesele (The Wedding Reception)]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20111003011030/http://www.muzeum.krakow.pl/Exhibition.260.0.html?&L=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=368&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=236&cHash=05eb282e51 Wyspiański’s Herbal]
[http://artyzm.com/e_artysta.php?id=688 Wyspiański’s paintings]
[http://www.pinakoteka.zascianek.pl/Wyspianski/Wysp_Witraze.htm Wyspiański stained-glasses]
[http://www.culture.pl/pl/culture/artykuly/os_laszczka_konstanty Kultura polska - Konstanty Laszczka]
Dobrowolski Tadeusz, Sztuka Młodej Polski, Warszawa 1963.
Słownik artystów polskich i obcych w Polsce działających. Malarze, rzeźbiarze, graficy, t. II, Wrocław 1975 (Urszula Leszczyńska).
Puciata-Pawłowska Joanna, Konstanty Laszczka, Siedlce 1980.