thumb|Palace of Art, also known as "Secession" headquarters of the [[Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts, in Kraków Old Town]]
Young Poland ( ) 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.
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.
Philosophy
The term was coined in a manifesto by writer , 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.
Literature
thumb|left|[[Stanisław Wyspiański 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. 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. 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.
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.<gallery mode="packed">
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
</gallery>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.<gallery mode="packed">
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
</gallery>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.<gallery mode="packed">
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
</gallery>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),<gallery mode="packed">
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
</gallery>Olga Boznańska (1865-1940),<gallery mode="packed">
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
</gallery>and Józef Pankiewicz (1866-1940).<gallery mode="packed">
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
</gallery>Post-impressionist realism was represented by the paintings of Władysław Ślewiński (1856-1918),<gallery mode="packed-hover">
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
</gallery>
Leon Wyczółkowski (1852-1936),<gallery mode="packed-overlay">
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
</gallery>
Ferdynand Ruszczyc (1870-1936), <gallery mode="packed-overlay">
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
</gallery>
and Wojciech Weiss (1875-1950).<gallery mode="packed">
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
</gallery>
Witold Wojtkiewicz (1879-1909) et Konrad Krzyżanowski (1872-1922) represented the expressionist tendency.
<gallery mode="packed-hover">
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
</gallery>Other painters of this period include Stanisław Masłowski, Fryderyk Pautsch, Kazimierz Sichulski, Stanisław Dębicki, Wałdysław Jarocki, Edward Okuń, Włodzimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer and Jan Stanisławski.
See also
- History of Poland (1795–1918)
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
- Stanisław Wyspiański, biography from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute
- First review of Wesele (The Wedding Reception)
- Wyspiański’s Herbal
- Wyspiański’s paintings
- Wyspiański stained-glasses
- 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.