Young Poland

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

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.

Visual arts

In the period of Young Poland there were no overwhelming trends in Polish art. The painters and sculptors tried to continue the romantic traditions with new ways of expression popularised abroad. The most influential trend was Art Nouveau, although Polish artists started to seek also some form of a national style (including styl zakopiański or the Zakopane style). Both sculpture and painting were also heavily influenced by all forms of symbolism.

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. 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 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. 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 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. 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 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), 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 Olga Boznańska (1865-1940), 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 and Józef Pankiewicz (1866-1940). 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 Post-impressionist realism was represented by the paintings of Władysław Ślewiński (1856-1918), 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

Leon Wyczółkowski (1852-1936), 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

Ferdynand Ruszczyc (1870-1936), 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

and Wojciech Weiss (1875-1950). 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

Witold Wojtkiewicz (1879-1909) et Konrad Krzyżanowski (1872-1922) represented the expressionist tendency. 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 Other painters of this period include Stanislaw Mas-owski, Fryderyk Pautsch, Kazimierz Sichulski, Stanislaw D-bicki, Wadysaw Jarocki, Edward Oku, Wovzimierz Tetmajer and Jan Stanislawwski.

References

1. "Young Poland movement".
2. "Secesja w Krakowie – cz.1.".
3. (1992). "National Style and Nation-state: Design in Poland from the Vernacular Revival to the International Style". Manchester University Press.
4. "Polska, literatura, Młoda Polska".
5. "MŁODA POLSKA".
6. Benton, Charlotte. (2004). "Figuration/abstraction: stratégies for public sculpture in Europe, 1945-1968". Ashgate.