Silesian Museum in Katowice (Polish: Muzeum Śląskie w Katowicach) is a museum in the City of Katowice, Poland.

Silesian Museum in Katowice

Established	1929, 1984 reinstated
Location	1 Tadeusza Dobrowolskiego Street Katowice, Poland
Type	Voivodeship museum
Director	Maria Czarnecka
Website	www.muzeumslaskie.pl

History

The museum was founded in 1929 by the Silesian Sejm, while the region was recovering from the Silesian Uprisings. In the XX century interbellum, the Silesian Museum in Katowice was one of the biggest museums in Poland. The Germans-Nazis however brought the collection to Bytom 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 (See article in German or article in Polish) founded by Carl Lazarus Henckel von Donnersmarck including old extant buildings, but the primary exhibition space is underground in what was the mine.[1]

Collection

Permanent exhibitions[2] cover:

• Upper Silesia 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.[3]
• 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, paintings by Olga Boznańska, Henryk Rodakowski, Jan Matejko, Józef Chełmoński, Aleksander Gierymski, Jacek Malczewski, 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
• Tymon Niesiołowski [pl]
• Stanisław Witkiewicz
• Witold Wojtkiewicz

More contemporary artists on display are: Edward Dwurnik [pl], Adam Marczyński, Andrzej Wróblewski, Tadeusz Kantor, Jerzy Nowosielski, Władysław Hasior, Zdzisław Beksiński, Lech Majewski, Zbigniew Libera, Natalia LL.

Gallery

• 
  Mountain Stream, Jan Nepomucen Głowacki
• 
  Portrait of Hetman Ostafij Daszkiewicz, Jan Matejko
• 
  Portrait of Józef Ciechoński, Jan Matejko
• 
  Sleigh Ride, Józef Chełmoński
• 
  View of Kościuszko Mound, Stanisław Wyspiański
• 
  Fruit Picking, Władysław Skoczylas
• 
  Jewess with Lemons, Aleksander Gierymski
• 
  Self-portrait, Władysław Podkowiński
• 
  Portrait of a Lady in a Hat, Olga Boznańska
• 
  Girl with Canary, Leopold Loeffler. Owned by the museum, lost between 1939 and 1945, returned in 2015.

References

Works and publications

• "O muzeum. Historia". www.muzeumslaskie.pl. Retrieved 2011-06-05.
• Wojciech Janota: Katowice między wojnami. Miasto i jego sprawy 1922–1939. Łódź: Księży Młyn, 2010, s. 110, 111. ISBN 978-83-7729-021-7.

External links

• Official website
• The Silesian Museum: The Architecture of Identity

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