The Sejm of the Republic of Poland wants to celebrate the 160th anniversary of the artist’s birth by making 2025 the Year of Olga Boznańska. A resolution to this effect was adopted by the Sejm on 24 July.
The year 2025 marks the 160th anniversary of the birth and 85th anniversary of the death of Olga Boznanska. She is one of the most important figures of the Polish artistic world at the turn of the 20th century. At the same time, the Sejm honoured other figures important to the country’s history. The year 2025 was also established as the Year of Franciszek Duszeńko, Antoni Słonimski, Stefan Żeromski, General Kazimierz Sosnkowski and the Year of the Polish Heroes of Katyn, Kharkiv, Miednoje, Bykivnia and other places, as well as the Year of the Millennium of the Coronation of the Two First Kings in Gniezno.
The resolution commemorating Olga Boznańska says that her paintings are among the most important works of Polish modernist painting and the canon of art history. It was also pointed out that “her career is an example of one of the most outstanding Polish artistic successes in the international arena.”
Olga Boznańska was born on 15 April 1865 in Kraków and died in 1940 in Paris. She was the daughter of the engineer Adam Nowina Boznański and the Frenchwoman Eugenia de Mondain. Her father was a graduate of the Vienna Polytechnic, while her mother was interested in art and drew. Although Boznańska spent most of her life abroad, she remained strongly attached to Poland throughout her life. She regularly visited Kraków, where she exhibited her paintings. Her works were also exhibited in Warsaw.
The artist mainly created portraits. Most of her works were created in her studio, and a frequent motif of her paintings is the interior of her studio or what she saw outside her window.
Boznańska won many artistic awards. In addition, in 1912 she was awarded the French Legion of Honour, and in 1937 she received the Grand Prix at the Universal Exhibition in Paris. In the 1930s, the painter was honoured with the Warsaw Art Prize and the Order of Polonia Restituta, the second oldest Polish state decoration. The Order of Polonia Restituta is awarded for achievements in the fields of education, science, art, culture, sport or defence of the country.
source: PAP, Sejm of the Republic of Poland
Read also: Arts | Culture | Interesting facts | Featured | Events | whiteMAD on Instagram
