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An exhibition at the National Museum, Cracow: 14th June - 13th August 2006
Art dealers in search of the next big thing could do a lot worse than turn east to Poland. In fact, grandmas with a sideline in reading crystal balls could win some valuable customers at auction houses by becoming experts on Polish art. In this regard, the best period to home in on would be 1850-1939, which roughly coincides with the life of Jozef Pankiewicz, the focus of this major exhibition at the National Gallery.
Jozef Pankiewicz was just one of dozens of bright sparks who helped revolutionise Polish art in the closing years of the nineteenth century. Of course, Poland did not actually exist at that time - the country was reborn after the First World War - and it's this factor which makes Polish modernism slightly complex at the first encounter.
Along with his friend Wladyslaw Podkowinski, Pankiewicz brought the Impressionist style to Poland. It was a time when Poles were experimenting with many new directions in art. Several of Pankiewicz's earlier works are indeed strikingly reminiscent of Renoir and Monet, but in the end, most of his peers ended up following a less obviously derivative style, and Pankiewicz himself went through several changes of direction in his long career.
Perhaps it will come as no surprise to the Poles, but the exhibition reveals that Pankiewicz really came into his own when he was painting nocturnal scenes. It was something of a joke amongst German artists that the Poles' melancholic souls were reflected in the amount of black paint they used in their paintings. But although there was certainly a fashion in Poland to paint these nocturnes, it also happened that Pankiewicz had reasons to be feeling somewhat under the weather in the mid 1890s. It was around that time that his friend Podkowinski was losing his battle against tuberculosis (Podkowinski eventually died in 1895, aged just 28, and who knows what gems he might have gone on to create). Amongst the scores of Pankiewicz's works at this exhibition, there are several fantastic nocturnal scenes. Paintings such as 'Swans In the Saski Gardens At Night' (1894) and the stunning 'Daybreak' (1896) verge on abstraction, whilst 'Warsaw's Old Town Square at Night' (1892), from the former collection of Count Raczynski, is as good as anything knocked out by the famous French names. It was also in this period that Pankiewicz painted one of his most celebrated works, 'Portrait of a Girl in a Red Dress' (1897). Like so many oil-paintings, this work simply doesn't translate well to book or magazine format, but it's a marvel. 
(above) Detail from 'Portait of a Girl In a Red Dress', (1897), Jozef Pankiewicz (the painting now belongs to the branch of the National Museum in Kielce)
Perhaps this hapless reviewer's tastes have just become irredeemably polonised, but he can't help feeling that Pankiewicz's post-1914 phases are somewhat less inspiring. This was a time when Pankiewicz was by and large based in France. There are many still-lifes from the 1920's on view, and endless landscapes from the south of France. It's all very interesting seeing how the artist's style developed, but somehow one feels that the magic has gone. Nevertheless, Pankiewicz achieved great things during this period as a teacher, heading the Paris branch of the famed Cracow Academy. He was made a Chevalier de la Legion d' Honneur in 1926.
All in all, this show, which ties in with the 140th anniversary of the Pankiewicz's birth, is a timely look back at one of the more interesting members of the 'Young Poland' generation. The array of sketches and charcoals also reveals some further impressive strings to the artist's bow, mostly from the 1890's, a prolific era for the young Pankiewicz. Upstairs, art enthusiasts can have a look at the broader picture in the Gallery of Polish Art, which has just reopened after a magnificent renovation.
'Jozef Pankiewicz (1866 - 1940) - Life and Work'
National Museum, Cracow, ul. 3 Maja 1
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