Young Poland Exhibition – ‘Polish Art 1890-1918’, Kyoto, Japan, April 2025

This time, Biblioteca de Arte visited distant Japan! The purpose of the trip was to visit Expo 2025 in Osaka and, of course, the exhibition Young Poland 1890-1918 at the Museum in Kyoto. This trip was the first of many to come, demonstrating our interest in the Middle and Far East, and in particular the art market in Japan and South Korea.

From 25 March to 29 June 2025, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (MoMAK) hosted the exhibition Young Poland – ‘Polish Art 1890-1918’, presenting a key period in Polish modern art.

The exhibition featured over 130-150 paintings, graphic works and artistic crafts – from works by Jan Matejko and Artur Grottger, through the artists of Young Poland: Olga Boznańska, Józef Mehoffer, Jacek Malczewski, Władysław Ślewiński, to other works less known in Japan.

The exhibition also highlighted the fascinating connections between Polish artists and Japanese art – for example, the influence of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and Japanese crafts appeared in the works of artists from Krakow, which took on additional significance in the context of the presentation in Japan.

The exhibition was described as the first such comprehensive attempt to show the achievements of Young Poland in Japan and represents an important step in Polish-Japanese cultural cooperation.

In this way, the exhibition not only documents the ‘golden age’ of Polish art between 1890 and 1918, but also shows how Polish artistic identity could coexist with modernist trends and at the same time develop its own artistic language despite the lack of an independent state.