Society of Friends of Fine Arts | The Art Palace — Attraction in Krakow

The Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts is a social group of artists, artisans and their supporters founded in Kraków in 1854, under the Austrian Partition of Poland. Today, the Society operates from the Art Nouveau Palace of Art erected by its own members in 1901 at the Szczepański Square in Kraków Old Town. After major renovations of the Palace in 1996, the Society organizes local and international art exhibits and numerous other art initiatives.

The nonprofit Society of Friends of Fine Arts was established in Kraków for the purpose of promoting Polish art and culture, against the foreign rulership of Austria-Hungary. The Society had a gallery at the Larisch'a Palace, and later in Sukiennice, exhibiting Jan Matejko among others. Four decades after its original founding, using public donations and funds acquired from the sale of Artur Grottger, on 26 June 1899 the Society began construction of its own Palace of Art along the popular Planty Park, based on design by Franciszek Mączyński.

After two years of meticulous construction, the gallery was ceremonially inaugurated on 11 May 1901 by the Mayor of Kraków, Count Edward Aleksander Raczyński. It was the first Art Nouveau building in the city, inspired by the Ancient Greek temples, with Apollo's sculpted head above its entrance, and Modernist reliefs on outside walls designed by Professor Jacek Malczewski from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków.

In early 20th century, the Palace run by the Society became one of the main exhibition venues of the Young Poland movement. Today, the reborn Society composed of members of the Rotary International upholds its original mission of promoting contemporary art, both Polish and international. It organizes art auctions on site, sponsors its own Institute of Research and artwork Documentation (Instytut Badań i Dokumentacji) and publishes art catalogues about painting, graphic arts, drawing...

It's good that smaller art galleries like Palace Sztuki exist and allow lesser-known artists space, but unfortunately I didn't enjoy this one. It's a small rather specialist (limited) exhibition with only a very few exhibits that I actually enjoyed looking at. Some pictures were only slightly interesting, others simply puzzling, or a bit of a waste of display space, with no appeal for me. In the whole museum there were only around 12 pictures and a few sculptures that were aesthetically pleasing in my opinion. Also there was a fairly interesting display of old photographs of the museum going back to the war - but these were displayed on the staircase and the bottom row of photos was only a few cm above the floor, others were almost at ceiling height! So I cannot understand how they expected people to view the top and bottom rows of pictures. It was impossible. Plus the staircase wasn't well lit - this also made the photos harder to view. Poor presentation - I'd have liked to be able to view all the photos, not just the middle rows. The photos were perhaps the best exhibit. I did get in for a concessionary rate of 15 Zloty - just as well - the full rate (30 ZL I think)...

Pałac Sztuki Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Sztuk Pięknych to prawdziwa perełka na artystycznej i kulturalnej mapie Krakowa. Położony tuż przy Plantach i nieopodal Rynku Głównego, zachwyca już od pierwszego spojrzenia - zarówno lokalizacją, jak i swoją secesyjną architekturą, która przyciąga miłośników zarówno architektury jak i szeroko lojętej sztuki. Budynek emanuje klimatem dawnych lat i tworzy doskonałą oprawę dla wystaw czasowych.

Miałem okazję odwiedzić wystawę prac Czesława Dźwigaja - wybitnego rzeźbiarza, grafika i profesora związanego z krakowską ASP. Jego twórczość, zarówno monumentalna, jak i subtelna w wyrazie, zrobiła na mnie piorunujące wrażenie. Rzeźby, pełne symboliki, i niezwykle precyzyjne grafiki świadczą o ogromnym talencie i głębi refleksji autora.

Ceny biletów są bardzo przystępne, co czyni to miejsce jeszcze bardziej dostępnym. Zdecydowanie warto wspierać takie inicjatywy - to nie tylko spotkanie ze sztuką najwyższych lotów, ale także piękna forma kontaktu z dziedzictwem kulturowym i współczesną myślą artystyczną.

Polecam każdemu, kto ceni sztukę, refleksję i piękno - wizyta w Pałacu Sztuki to prawdziwe przeżycie, nie...