28 September 2025 – 18 January 2026
Curator of the exhibition: Anna Chmielarz
A grand exhibition dedicated to the legendary painter and draftsman Waldemar Cwenarski (1926–1953) organised on the occasion of the artist’s 100th birthday and the 70th anniversary of the opening of the National Exhibition of Young Art “Against the War, Against Fascism” in the Arsenal in Warsaw (1955), where Cwenarski’s works were greeted with an enthusiastic reception.
Cwenarski’s work deserves the highest accolade not merely as an example of independent post-war art, the exceptionally moving record of dramatic fates of the generation marked with the stigma of the Second World War, but also as a universal, highly emotional narration about the need for closeness, love, and protection of what is most precious in life. His expressive painting technique, exceptional colour sense, the use of interesting shortened perspective, and striving for synthesis while maintaining the maximum of expressive power, are a testament to the artist’s great sensitivity and individuality.
The works of Waldemar Cwenarski are presented for the first time in the wide context of Polish and international art, and in the context of his possible inspirations (work of Witold Wojtkiewicz, Tadeusz Makowski, Georges Rouault, Käthe Kollwitz, and Frans Masereel), work of his contemporary artists from the so-called Arsenal Generation (Andrzej Wróblewski, Marek Oberländer, Jan Lebenstein, Jerzy Panek), work of professors linked with the PWSSP in Wrocław (Eugeniusz Geppert, Stanisław Dawski), his fellow students (Józef Hałas, Krystyna Cybińska, Alina Rogalska-Kaćma, Kazimierz Wadowski), as well as the art of “ The New Wild” (Zdzisław Nitka, Ryszard Grzyb, Anka Mierzejewska). The exhibition showcases around 160 works created using a variety of techniques (painting, drawing, prints, sculpture, ceramics) over the last 120 years.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue.