21st-Century Self-Portraits at the National Museum
Thanks to the long-standing efforts of the Friends of the National Museum in Warsaw, a new collection of contemporary art – 21st-Century Self-Portraits – has been made possible. Funds for this initiative were raised through the auction “Collectors for the National Museum in Warsaw.”
The inspiration for the collection comes from Count Ignacy Korwin-Milewski, the greatest collector of Polish painting at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. At the time, he commissioned fifteen self-portraits from prominent artists whose works he owned – including Aleksander Gierymski, Jacek Malczewski, Jan Matejko, and the only female artist in the group, Anna Bilińska.
The newly created collection continues this legacy with works by ten female and ten male artists, each offering a contemporary perspective and using diverse media. The artists who contributed their self-portraits are:
Paweł Althamer, Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Rafał Bujnowski, Mirosław Bałka, Barbara Falender, Izabella Gustowska, Zuzanna Janin, Łukasz Korolkiewicz, Katarzyna Krakowiak, Zbigniew Libera, Rafał Milach, Jarosław Modzelewski, Agnieszka Polska, Katarzyna Przezwańska, Karol Radziszewski, Joanna Rajkowska, Wilhelm Sasnal, Jadwiga Sawicka, Aleksandra Waliszewska, and Artur Żmijewski.
The initiative was also supported by Weronika Szwarcb-Bronikowska and the Media People agency, who contributed Julia Woronowicz’s painting “Friends” to the auction and helped fund the acquisition of Joanna Rajkowska’s piece “I Wouldn’t Dare.”
The result of this collective effort is the exhibition “21st-Century Self-Portraits”, which opened on March 21 and features all the commissioned works. The artists employed a range of techniques – from painting, sculpture, and photography to multimedia and sound installations. All of the works are being shown to the public for the very first time.
The exhibition is on view at the National Museum in Warsaw until July 20, 2025. You are warmly invited to visit!
Temporary exhibitions / National Museum in Warsaw
More about the auction and works donated by collectors:
https://www.vogue.pl/a/aukcja-w-desa-unicum-wesprze-muzeum-narodowe-w-warszawie
