The Best of Muzeum Karykatury

The Museum of Caricature houses items representing such realms as graphic art, painting and sculpture. The collection currently comprises more than 25 000 artefacts. The Museum’s archives contain numerous rarities of Polish and international caricature, dating from the 18th century to the present day. The works are studied, conserved and digitised, and the entire catalogue being available online.

The Best of Muzeum Karykatury marks the opening of the Museum’s archives to a wider audience. While selecting the exhibits, we deliberately rejected the tools of art history, opting for the far less clear-cut and directly subjective categories of wit and humour. We wanted to distance ourselves from academic themes and focus on the essence of the Museum’s collection, aiming to bring a smile to the viewer’s face.

The Museum’s holdings testifies to the changes  in Polish humour over time. The works selected for the exhibition express the diversity of satirical artists’ attitudes towards life and art, including the medium of the joke, which is so difficult to capture and describe. The essence of the exhibition (and of the Museum’s collection) lies in the search for balance between high culture, with its political, social and artistic engagement, and popular culture, which is much closer to the audience.

The Best of Muzeum Karykatury is a glance at the history of Polish illustrated humour, a compilation of the most exciting genres and styles, and a reflection on the relevance of art suspended between the tradition of the press and the contemporary world of memes and short-form videos. Exploring such a wide array of works from the archives also provides a unique opportunity to review nearly 50 years of the Museum’s history and to reflect on the future development of the collection.

In its concept and scale, the show refers directly to the exhibition entitled The Best Works from the Museum of Caricature’s Collection, prepared by Eryk Lipiński in 1983 to celebrate the opening of the premises at Kozia 11.

Czesław Andrysiak, Maja Berezowska, Jakub Bickels, Julian Bohdanowicz, Tomasz Broda, Stefan Brzozowski, Bohdan Butenko, Roman Cieślewicz, Henryk Chmielewski, Andrzej Czeczot, Henryk Derwich, Jerzy Duda-Gracz, Andrzej Dudziński, Edward Dwurnik, Wiesław Dymny, Józef Dynda, Jacek Fedorowicz, Eugeniusz Antoni Ferster, Karol Ferster, Jerzy Flisak, Jacek Gawłowski, Hanna Gosławska-Lipińska (Ha-Ga), Stanisław Gratkowski (Ibis), Mirosław Gryń, Henryk Grunwald, Kazimierz Grus, Józef Hollak, Ibis, Teresa Jakubowska, Jerzy Jankowski, Witold Janowski, Zbigniew Jujka, Grzegorz Kaczmarczyk, Roman Kalarus, Jolanta Karczewska, Stanisław Keller, Fryderyk Kleinman (Fryc), Tadeusz Kleczyński, Szymon Kobyliński, Eli Kochański, Franciszek Kostrzewski, Otolia Kraszewska, Andrzej Krauze, Stanisław Kuczborski, Zbigniew Kiulin, Zbigniew Kulin, Jan Lenica, Zbigniew Lengren, Eryk Lipiński, Jadwiga Lipowska, Edward Lutczyn, Adam Macedoński, Jan Matejko, Gwidon Miklaszewski, Andrzej Mleczko, Jan Młodożeniec, Kazimierz Mozolewski, Stanisław Mrowiński, Sławomir Mrożek, Rafał Olbiński, Stefan Papp, Andrzej Pągowski, Mieczysław Piotrowski, Mirosław Pokora, Marek Polański, Zbigniew Piotrowski, Juliusz Puchalski, Joanna Radzka, Marek Raczkowski, Szczepan Sadurski, Henryk Sawka, Kazimierz Sichulski, Andrzej Siemaszko, Jan Sochacki, Jerzy Srokowski, Janusz Stanny, Franciszek Starowieyski, Andrzej Stopka, Jerzy Szwajcer (Jotes), Józef Szajna, Jan Marcin Szancer, Maria Szmidt, Rosław Szaybo, Waldemar Świerzy, Maria Tarska, Henryk Tomaszewski, Feliks Topolski, Roland Topor, Maciej Trzepałka, Stanisław Tym, Antoni Uniechowski, Maciej Urbaniec, Zygmunt Waliszewski, Antoni Wasilewski, Tomasz Wiater, Stefan Wielgus, Teresa Wilbik, Józef Wilkoń, Ryszard Winiarski, Witkacy, Ignacy Witz, Witold Wojtkiewicz, Leon Wyczółkowski, Lech Zachorski, Waldemar Zarachowicz, Jerzy Zaruba, Stanisław Ziarnkowski, Zbigniew Ziomecki

Curator: Michał Rzecznik
Graphic design and scenographic elements: Dominik Cymer – Cyber Kids on Real
Production: Paulina Brzezińska
Technical support: Krzysztof Czerwiński
Leaflet text: Olga Drenda
English translation: Łukasz Kotyński
Ukrainian translation: Iuliia Bystrycka 

MUSEUM OF CARICATURE

Director: Paweł Płoski
Deputy Director: Monika Portka
Chief Accountant: Małgorzata Krupa
Administration: Katarzyna Kowalczyk, Maria Osowska, Alina Zatorska
Communications: Katarzyna Miękus, Julia Pietrzak-Szczudło
Exhibitions: Paulina Brzezińska, Michał Rzecznik Education: Zuzanna Berus, Karolina Pardej, Joanna Rzepecka
Collections and Documentation: Piotr Kułak, Paulina Pilcicka, Magdalena Wrzosek
Box Office: Danuta Porowska, Jolanta Warpas
Legal services: Hipsz Magdziak Attorneys-at-Law Partnership 

The works presented in the exhibition come from the collection of the Eryk Lipiński Museum of Caricature.

Organisers: the Museum of Caricature, the City of Warsaw