Gdynia

Szukalski Museum

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One of the most original Polish artists of the 20th century, the works of Stanisław Szukalski are now being celebrated at this new museum in Gdynia, the first ever in Poland.
 

Szukalski Museum in Gdynia Orłowo.

Who was Stanisław Szukalski?

It's not uncommon for Polish talent to make a name for themselves internationally before being rediscovered back home! One such example is Stanisław Szukalski, a multi-disciplinary artist who is best known for his sculptures that combined art nouveau design with elements of cubism, expressionism, futurism, and other exotic cultures. Born in 1897 in Warta, he was sent to the United States at a young age and enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago at just 13 years old. The sculptor prodigy would move back and forth between the US and Poland, with further studies at Kraków's Academy of Fine Arts and becoming a key name in the so-called "Chicago Renaissance" scene.
Stanisław Szukalski posing with his sculpture in 1936.
Having relocated to Poland in 1936, Hitler's invasion and the subsequent siege of Warsaw saw his capital-based studio completely destroyed in 1939. Szukalski was injured, and almost all of his unsold works were lost. He and his wife fled back to the United States, prompting him to settle permanently in California. It was around this time that Szukalski began to pursue his interests in the exotic cultures that had influenced his work and would develop the pseudoscientific-historical theory of Zermatism. This proposed that modern humanity was descended from the culture of Easter Island and there being a legacy of humankind's time in bondage with Yetinsyny, the offspring of Yeti and humans. Upon his death in 1987, Szukalski's ashes were taken to Easter Island and scattered.

Szukalski is rediscovered

Among the many friendships that were formed in the United States was that of George DiCaprio, a comic book artist and father of future Hollywood A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio. This close relationship eventually inspired the younger to produce the Netflix documentary series Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski, resulting in the international rediscovery of this amazing mind behind an equally phenomenal body of artworks. This was also an opportunity to dust off Szukalski collections that still existed and put them on display.

The Szukalski Museum in Gdynia

Once such collection belongs to Krzysztof Ziemann, who has opened Muzeum Szukalskiego in Gdynia Orłowo. As Ziemann has stated: "Our collection encompasses a spectrum of Stanisław Szukalski's visual works: sculpture, bas-relief, drawing, and photography. However, to avoid separating art from the man and to attempt to tell the story of Stach of Warta as fully as possible, we also value historical objects: photographs, documents, letters, films, and the intangible legacy Szukalski left behind—records of knowledge, imagination, ideas, and values."
 

Website

Social Links:

Email

info@szukalski-museum.org

Open

Open 11:00-18:00. Closed Mon, Tue.

Price/Additional Info

30/15zł

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