Online exhibitions

The life of the outstanding artist, Janina Kłopocka, the creator of the graphic emblem of the Union of Poles in Germany, the so-called „Rodło“ sign, is a typical example of the knotty fate of Poles in the 20th century.

The Polish artist and theatre maker, Józef Szajna, was imprisoned in the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He spent almost two years in Maczków (Haren) on the Ems.

The Danzig-born illustrator also created works with Polish themes.

Karol Broniatowski, one of the most important contemporary Polish sculptors, lives in Berlin.

Die Ausstellung „Frömmigkeit und Nachtgesichte – Naive Kunst aus Polen im Spiegel der Moderne“ fand vom 21. Februar bis 10. April 2016 in der Kunsthalle Recklinghausen statt.

The exhibition “Across the Generations – Polish Art in Marl” was shown in the Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten in Marl in 2016.

His caricatures on Hitler’s regime are valuable documents of the post-war period.

In his role as a radio director, writer and poet, Zdzisław (Rudolf) Nardelli was a leading cultural personality in Poland after the end of the Second World War. He was born on 18. October 1913 into an Italian merchant family that had settled in Cieszyn in the 18th century.

Are we looking at feel-good Germany or the forests of Mazovia, with their smell of leaves, mushrooms and melancholy? Małgosia Jankowska, born in Sochaczew, comes from a Polish district full of lakes and forests. Her works convey such understanding hints that she is just as comfortable in her childhood home as in ours.

Aleksander Gierymski was a polish painter and the younger brother of Maksymilian Gierymski.

Maksymilian Gierymski (1846-1874) was one of the most outstanding Polish artists in Munich in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Around 330 Polish students enrolled in the Academy of Arts in Munich between 1828 and 1914.

Marta Klonowska brings back to life animals that have only played secondary roles in pictures for hundreds of years.

The Berlin couple possess one of the largest collections of Polish poster art.

Halfway through her painting course Karina Smigla-Bobinski gave up the two-dimensional media in order to experiment with light and video installations. From then on space has been her favourite place in which to realise her art. She recognises the great potential of an active audience and thus designs the places where she works into collective spaces for active and creative participants. She regards her art as a medium of communication. Her works are materialised events springing from her observations and thoughts in the border area between art, science and philosophy. Karina Smigla-Bobinski lives in Munich. Anyone who wants to contact her will be more likely to meet her at one of the many art festivals in one of the forty countries and five continents in which her works are shown.

Krzysztof Meyer was born in 1943 in Krakow, where he lived until he moved permanently to Germany in 1987. For more than half a century he has been composing vocal and instrumental music for orchestra, chamber ensembles and soloists. He has composed works such as the opera The Cyberiad based on Stanisław Lem's short stories, the oratorio The Creation of the World, Mass, eight symphonies for various orchestral and vocal ensembles, 15 instrumental concertos, 14 string quartets as well as quintets, trios for various instruments and solo pieces mostly for piano and cello but also for organ and saxophone. His output is very varied: He has composed songs for virtuosos and for children and also music that features an unconventional approach to playing as well as music that is addressed to the tradionalists. Altogether he has written more than one hundred works, most of which have been recorded and are available on CD.

Hermann Scheipers, a Catholic priest, honorary Canon of the Bishopric of Dresden-Meißen, and honorary Papal Prelate, was born on 24th July 1913 in Ochtrup in the region of Westphalia. Following his intervention on behalf of Polish forced labourers he was arrested in 1940 and sent to the Dachau concentration camp. Here he worked tirelessly for his fellow prisoners, above all for the Polish priests. After he escaped from the concentration camp during the so-called death marches in 1945, at the end of the war he fell victim to the second German dictatorship in his role as a chaplain in East Germany. He was responsible for building the first church in the GDR and took an active part at the funeral of Cardinal Stephan Trochta in Czechoslovakia. Here he made the acquaintance of the Bishop of Kraków, Karol Wojtyla. On 25th November 2002 Hermann Scheipers and his twin sister Anna were awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. On 26th February 2013 he was presented with the Knights Cross of the Order of Merit from the Republic of Poland.

Roland Schefferski was born in Kattowitz/Katowice in 1956. From 1971 to 1976 he attended the artistic grammar school in Breslau/Wrocław. Following this, from 1976 to 1981, he continued his studies in the city by following a course in free art at the State College of Visual Arts. In 1984 he moved to Berlin where he still lives and works.

Danuta Karsten, maiden name Chroboczek, was born in 1963 in the village of Mała Słońca, forty kilometres south of Danzig/Gdańsk. From 1978 to 1983 she attended the Artistic Lyceum in Gdynia. She subsequently studied sculpture from 1983 to 1985 at the State College of Visual Arts in Danzig under the guidance of Stanisław Radwański. In 1986 she moved to the Art Academy in Düsseldorf to pursue her studies in sculpture under Günther Uecker and Klaus Rinke. In 1993 she completed her studies as a master student under Klaus Rinke. She now lives and works in Recklinghausen and Herne.

The Bochum Art Museum (Kunstmuseum Bochum) probably contains the most comprehensive and important public collection of Polish 20th century art in Germany. In 2015 it comprised around 100 works from the areas of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, object art and installations.