Author Description

Symbolist landscapes, in-depth psychological portraits, and mythological scenes tell the story of a people without a nation, but with a rich culture and a complex history. With the exhibition and catalogue 'Mloda Polska: Polish Fin de Siècle Art', Gothenburg Museum of Art presents several national icons from the golden age of Polish art around the turn of the century 1900. The catalogue gives in-dept knowledge of the cultural movement Mloda Polska where leading researches participates with newly written essays. Mloda Polska (Young Poland) is the name of the artistic movement that marked the birth of Polish modernism. In Swedish art history, the nearest equivalent is the Opponents movement of the 1880s, but Mloda Polska had its own specific historical prerequisites. National identity and a longing for freedom were expressed symbolically. The historical background was the division of Poland in 1795 between Russia, Prussia, and Austria, to be united as a nation first in 1918.