A large-scale, jubilee and multidimensional temporary exhibition “Wyspiański’s Wawel” has opened at the Wawel Royal Castle in Krakow, which will run until 21 July 2024 and is dedicated to the Wawel motifs in the work of Stanisław Wyspiański.

According to the Wawel Royal Castle, 120 years ago, in the spring of 1904, Wyspianski published the drama Acropolis, set in the cathedral, while in the autumn, together with Władysław Ekielski, who had been invited to collaborate, he began work on a concept for the development of the hill – the grand Acropolis project. The project was closely linked to the recovery of the Wawel Hill from the hands of the partitioning army, and at the same time consolidated the 19th-century concept of Wawel as the heart of Poland.

The exhibition is divided into three thematic sections: the first presents Wawel motifs present in Wyspiański’s visual works, the second in his literary works, and the third shows the artist’s influence, direct and indirect, on other artists. The ideological centre of the exhibition consists of two parts: one discussing the Acropolis project and the other devoted to the drama of the same title. An important complement to the first is a gate erected especially for the exhibition, alluding in form to the one Władysław Ekielski wrote about in his commentary on the project.

Visitors will have the opportunity to see almost 300 objects, including many outstanding works by Stanisław Wyspiański – the exhibition opens with his “Self-Portrait with a kontusz”. Other outstanding works include views with Wawel motifs (Planty at Night, Zakole Wisły), portraits of Sigismund the Old and Sigismund Augustus, and images of actors performing in the world premiere staging of the drama called Boleslaus the Bold at the Teatr Miejski in Kraków: Józef Sosnowski, Michał Tarasiewicz and Andrzej Mielewski.

Sketches for the design of cathedral stained glass windows, drawings of architectural details, sketches for the design of Acropolis, as well as literary works and works thematically related to stagings of Wyspiański’s dramas also deserve special attention.

Adrian Andrzejewski