Silesian Museum in Katowice ( pl, Muzeum Śląskie w Katowicach) is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that Preservation (library and archival science), cares for and displays a collection (artwork), collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, culture, cultu ...

in the City of

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popu ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

History

The museum was founded in 1929 by the Silesian Sejm, while the region was recovering from the

Silesian Uprisings The Silesian Uprisings (german: Aufstände in Oberschlesien, Polenaufstände, links=no; pl, Powstania śląskie, links=no) were a series of three uprisings from August 1919 to July 1921 in Upper Silesia, which was part of the Weimar Republic ...

. In the XX century interbellum, the Silesian Museum in Katowice was one of the biggest museums in Poland. The

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s however brought the collection to

Bytom Bytom (Polish pronunciation: ; Silesian: ''Bytōm, Bytōń'', german: Beuthen O.S.) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. Located in the Silesian Voivodeship of Poland, the city is 7 km northwest of Katowice, the regional capital ...

and tore the building down in 1940. In 1984 the museum was reinstated in the former Grand Hotel. In 2015 a new seat was opened on the site of the former ''Katowice''

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

(See article in German or article in Polish) founded by Carl Lazarus Henckel von Donnersmarck including old extant buildings, but the primary

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

space is underground in what was the mine.

Collection

Permanent exhibitions cover: *

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, locate ...

over the course of history, presented in Polish, English, and German, and notably addressing sensitive issues such as the area's German cultural heritage and relationship with Germany – topics taboo under the Communist regime. * Polish Art 1800–1945 * Gallery of non-Professional Art * Polish Art after 1945 * On the trail of Tomek Wilmowski * Sacred Art * Silesian industry * Laboratory of theatrical space * Silesian industry in the arms production of the 19th–20th c.

Artists on display

Among the works of Polish art are remarkable examples portraits by

Stanisław Wyspiański Stanisław Mateusz Ignacy Wyspiański (; 15 January 1869 – 28 November 1907) was a Polish playwright, painter and poet, as well as interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created a series of symbolic, national dramas within ...

, paintings by Olga Boznańska, Henryk Rodakowski,

Jan Matejko Jan Alojzy Matejko (; also known as Jan Mateyko; 24 June 1838 – 1 November 1893) was a Polish painter, a leading 19th-century exponent of history painting, known for depicting nodal events from Polish history. His works include large scale oi ...

, Józef Chełmoński, Aleksander Gierymski,

Jacek Malczewski Jacek Malczewski (; 15 July 1854 – 8 October 1929) was a Polish symbolist painter who is one of the most revered painters of Poland, associated with the patriotic Young Poland movement following a century of Partitions. He is regarded as the f ...

, Leon Wyczółkowski, Józef Pankiewicz, Władysław Podkowiński, and Jan Stanisławski. Other artists on display from the original collection, returned from Bytom, are: * Jan Cybis * Henryk Derczynski * Tadeusz Makowski * Józef Mehoffer * Piotr Michałowski * * Stanisław Witkiewicz * Witold Wojtkiewicz More contemporary artists on display are: , Adam Marczyński, Andrzej Wróblewski,

Tadeusz Kantor Tadeusz Kantor (6 April 1915 – 8 December 1990) was a Polish painter, assemblage and Happenings artist, set designer and theatre director. Kantor is renowned for his revolutionary theatrical performances in Poland and abroad. Laureate of ...

, Jerzy Nowosielski, Władysław Hasior,

Zdzisław Beksiński Zdzisław Beksiński (; 24 February 192921 February 2005) was a Polish painter, photographer, and sculptor, specializing in the field of dystopian surrealism. Beksiński made his paintings and drawings in what he called either a Baroque or a G ...

, Lech Majewski, Zbigniew Libera, Natalia LL.

Gallery

File:GlowackiJanNepomucen.1840.PotokGorski.jpg, ''Mountain Stream'', Jan Nepomucen Głowacki File:Muzeum Śląskie - Jan Matejko - Ostatni Daszkiewicz 02.jpg, ''Portrait of Hetman Ostafij Daszkiewicz'',

Mat-ciechonski.jpg, ''Portrait of Józef Ciechoński'', Jan Matejko File:J Chełmoński - Powrót z balu (1879).jpg, ''Sleigh Ride'', Józef Chełmoński File:Stanisław Wyspiański - Widok z okna pracowni na Kopiec Kościuszki (1904).jpg, ''View of Kościuszko Mound'',

File:Skoczylas-Owocobranie.jpg, ''Fruit Picking'', Władysław Skoczylas Aleksander_Gierymski_Zydowka_z_cytrynami.jpg, ''Jewess with Lemons'', Aleksander Gierymski WladyslawPodkowinski.Autoportret.1887.ws.jpg, ''Self-portrait'', Władysław Podkowiński Olga_Boznańska_1906_W_bialym_kapeluszu.jpg, ''Portrait of a Lady in a Hat'', Olga Boznańska Dziewczynka_z_kanarkiem.jpg, ''Girl with Canary'', Leopold Loeffler. Owned by the museum, lost between 1939 and 1945, returned in 2015.

References

Works and publications

* * Wojciech Janota: Katowice między wojnami. Miasto i jego sprawy 1922–1939. Łódź: Księży Młyn, 2010, s. 110, 111. .

External links

*
The Silesian Museum: The Architecture of Identity
{{authority control Museums established in 1929 Buildings and structures in Katowice Silesian culture Museums in Silesian Voivodeship History museums in Poland Art museums and galleries in Poland Printing press museums Military and war museums in Poland Registered museums in Poland Adaptive reuse of industrial structures in Poland Tourist attractions in Katowice