DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41590#0209
Stesania Krzysztof owicz-Kozakowska
Cracow
IM ± en t. Ihn and Twentieth
Cen-tui-y Polish
Art iii the Collect ion oT Jir i
Karasek of Lvovice
The history of the collection os Jis-i Karasek os Lvovice
began in the 1890s, this at first being an assembly os Italian,
French, and Dutch drawings and prints. When the conception arose
of creating in Prague a Slavic art gallery, Karasek, under the
considerable influence os Stanislaw Przybyszewki's literay
output, turned his interests toward Polish art, yielding to a
fascination above all with the Young Poland movement. At the
turn os the century Karasek entere! into correspondence with
the "tormented genius", Stanislaw Wyspiahski, whom, however, he
never came to know in person. Finally, the exhibition of the
Sztuka (Art) Society os Polish Artists held in Prague in 1902
established Karasek's artistic interests and his sriendships with
Polish artists, which with time were to bear fruit as an impo-
sing collection of Polonica, numbering 2,091 objects.
Most numerous in the Karasek Gallery are the works of the
Young Poland period, dominated by two names: that of Jacek Mal-
czewski, who is represented by 30 paintings and 96 drawings,
and os Vlastimil Hof man, whose oil paintings and watercolours
make a collection os 1,039 works. This extremely large number of
Hosman's oeuvres in the Karasek collection is the result of
their sriendship of many years’ standing. Moreover, Hofman was
sor Karasek the highest artistic authority.
It is «rood that at last the essort was made to show Jisi Ka-
rasek's collection, called KARGAL (Karasek Gallery). Two museums
akin to each other owing to their literary programme, namely,
the Pamätnik Nârodniho Pïsemnictvï in Prague and the Muzeum
Literatury im. Adama Mickiewicza in Warsaw arranged an
exhibition entitled "Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Polish Art
in the Collection of Jisi Karasek of Lvovice", held in Warsaw
from June to August 1988, in Cracow - Palac Sztuki - in Sep-
tember and October 1988, and in Prague in 1989, accompanied by
a comprehensive bilingual catalogue which contains not only a
large number of illustrations but also a calendar of Jisi Kara-
sekYs life and works, and two essays dealing with the history of
the gallery and its Polish collection, written by Rumjana Daceva
and Wojciech Chmurzynski' . ’ The exhibition was the more valuable
as until recently this legendary collection had been shown to
the public only twice and that in a reduced size - in 1967 in
207
Cracow
IM ± en t. Ihn and Twentieth
Cen-tui-y Polish
Art iii the Collect ion oT Jir i
Karasek of Lvovice
The history of the collection os Jis-i Karasek os Lvovice
began in the 1890s, this at first being an assembly os Italian,
French, and Dutch drawings and prints. When the conception arose
of creating in Prague a Slavic art gallery, Karasek, under the
considerable influence os Stanislaw Przybyszewki's literay
output, turned his interests toward Polish art, yielding to a
fascination above all with the Young Poland movement. At the
turn os the century Karasek entere! into correspondence with
the "tormented genius", Stanislaw Wyspiahski, whom, however, he
never came to know in person. Finally, the exhibition of the
Sztuka (Art) Society os Polish Artists held in Prague in 1902
established Karasek's artistic interests and his sriendships with
Polish artists, which with time were to bear fruit as an impo-
sing collection of Polonica, numbering 2,091 objects.
Most numerous in the Karasek Gallery are the works of the
Young Poland period, dominated by two names: that of Jacek Mal-
czewski, who is represented by 30 paintings and 96 drawings,
and os Vlastimil Hof man, whose oil paintings and watercolours
make a collection os 1,039 works. This extremely large number of
Hosman's oeuvres in the Karasek collection is the result of
their sriendship of many years’ standing. Moreover, Hofman was
sor Karasek the highest artistic authority.
It is «rood that at last the essort was made to show Jisi Ka-
rasek's collection, called KARGAL (Karasek Gallery). Two museums
akin to each other owing to their literary programme, namely,
the Pamätnik Nârodniho Pïsemnictvï in Prague and the Muzeum
Literatury im. Adama Mickiewicza in Warsaw arranged an
exhibition entitled "Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Polish Art
in the Collection of Jisi Karasek of Lvovice", held in Warsaw
from June to August 1988, in Cracow - Palac Sztuki - in Sep-
tember and October 1988, and in Prague in 1989, accompanied by
a comprehensive bilingual catalogue which contains not only a
large number of illustrations but also a calendar of Jisi Kara-
sekYs life and works, and two essays dealing with the history of
the gallery and its Polish collection, written by Rumjana Daceva
and Wojciech Chmurzynski' . ’ The exhibition was the more valuable
as until recently this legendary collection had been shown to
the public only twice and that in a reduced size - in 1967 in
207