Young Poland

also: Młoda Polska

movement c. 1890-1918 Poland Europe

Young Poland (Młoda Polska) was a modernist period in Polish visual arts, literature and music covering roughly 1890 to 1918, born of aesthetic revolt against Positivist rationalism. The name came from Artur Górski's 1898 manifesto in the Kraków newspaper Życie, echoing Young Germany and Young Belgium. Painting mixed decadence, neo-romanticism, Symbolism and Impressionism, with Art Nouveau as the dominant trend and a search for a national style that produced, among others, the Zakopane style. Exhibitions gathered at the Palace of Art in Kraków, seat of the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts. Wyspiański's pastels, murals and stained glass, Malczewski's symbol cycles and Mehoffer's luminous gardens defined its visual language, which joined picture, architecture and applied art in one decorative whole.

This image was uploaded as part of Wiki Loves Monuments 2019 .
This image was uploaded as part of Wiki Loves Monuments 2019 .CC BY-SA 4.0 (credit: Kgbo) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Art Nouveau line and floral ornament, with strong Vienna Secession influence
  • Symbolist imagery fusing personal and national symbols (Malczewski's cycles)
  • Extreme stylization in pastel: flowers, landscapes and portraits flattened into decorative pattern
  • Stained glass, polychromes and interiors designed together with the architecture
  • Luminous color and national romantic subjects: Polish history, peasant life, native landscape

Key figures

  • Stanisław Wyspiański (1869-1907) — Poet-painter whose pastels, church polychromies and stained glass fused all the arts
  • Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929) — Leading Polish symbolist; nearly half a century of national-allegorical cycles
  • Józef Mehoffer (1869-1946) — Painter and stained-glass master for Fribourg Cathedral and Wawel
  • Olga Boznańska (1865-1940) — One of the period's leading portrait painters
  • Władysław Podkowiński (1866-1899) — Early Polish symbolist painter of the Young Poland generation

Example works

  • Motherhood (Macierzyństwo) — Stanisław Wyspiański (1905)
  • Strange Garden (Dziwny ogród) — Józef Mehoffer (1903)
  • Wesele (The Wedding) — Stanisław Wyspiański (1901)

Sources

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