Painting with Light. Stained Glass and Mosaics from the Cracow Stained Glass Company S.G. Żeleński (1902-1952) is an exhibition recounting half a century of achievements of the Company, established in 1902 under the firm of Prof. W. Ekielski and A. Tuch, until 1952, which put an end to the private firm S.G. Żeleński (1907). More than 100 objects including original stained glass, cartoons and drawings will be on display from 17 January to 13 April 2025 at the Museum of the Archdiocese of Warsaw.
The factory was founded when the Polish Applied Arts Society (1901) attempted to combine the Norwidian idea of the renewal and development of artistic crafts with the ideology of the Arts & Crafts movement. Until the Great War, he was mainly active in Galicia, carrying out commissions for churches and secular interiors, where he contributed to the concept of the synthesis of the arts. In the Kingdom of Poland, he had competition from Polish firms active in Warsaw. In the Grand Duchy of Posen, which was devoid of Polish studios, Poles regarded placing orders in Kraków as a patriotic duty. In Restored Poland, led by Iza Żeleńska, he dominated the entire country, and the most avant-garde works appeared in the buildings of the autonomous Silesian province. After the Second World War, he produced outstanding designs for churches.
The exhibition presents only a fraction of the surviving designs and cartons, as well as stained glass windows that did not need to be removed from the windows and are in a format suitable for display in the museum space of the hall. It was necessary to supplement them with archival photographs and contemporary photograms – otherwise viewers would not have been able to see the most recognisable Young Poland stained glass. Works by only about 30 (out of more than 150) authors who cooperated with the Department were selected, including Zofia Leśniak, Adam Bunsch, Henryk Uziembła and Stefan W. Matejko. It is noteworthy that most of the works gathered in the exhibition have never been exhibited.
How can an exhibition tell the story of the studio’s achievements when the works created there – stained glass and mosaics – are mainly intended to be viewed in situ, and the designs have mostly been destroyed? Will the salvaged “movable” material – in the resources of museums and private owners – prove sufficient to give an idea of the line of development and artistic value of the Krakow Stained Glass, Artistic Glazing and Mosaic Company S.G. Żeleński? If a viewer says, like a former client of the company, “one doesn’t know which is prettier, the design or the stained glass” then its purpose will have been fulfilled.
Painting with Light. Stained glass and mosaics from the Krakow Stained Glass Company S.G. Żeleński (1902-1952)
Museum of the Warsaw Archdiocese
17.01 – 13.04.2025
Curator: Danuta Czapczyńska-Kleszczyńska
Museum of the Warsaw Archdiocese, 1 Dziekania Street, 00-279 Warsaw
source: press materials
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