The Myth of Galicia

An exhibition presenting what Krakow is all about in a nutshell: a multi-narrative tale of Galicia, a land shrouded in myths that are still alive in the collective memory of its inhabitants. The exhibition presents the myth of Galicia from the Polish, Ukrainian, Austrian, and Jewish perspectives.

Outstanding works of painting from the 19th and 20th centuries, including the rarely displayed canvases by a Krakow artist Michał Stachowicz and Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz – court painter of Emperor of Franz Joseph I are displayed beside those by Jacek Malczewski, Vlastimil Hofman, Teodor Axentowicz, Włodzimierz Tetmajer, and Władysław Jarocki. 

Presented together with painting are also other arts, including architecture, with fragments of Romanesque structures of the former Halych, and original documents whose number includes the partition treaty that severed Poland in 1772, films, photographs, maps, old prints, medals, and coins. A unique value of the exhibition are examples of contemporary Ukrainian art clearly inspired with the mythologised history of Galicia, which acquires a special significance in the context of the recent tragic events and political tension in Ukraine.