The Year of Czapski

12 May 2026–6 September 2026

Venue: MNK Czapski, Czapski Palace

It has been ten years since the exhibition entitled ‘Collection – Evolution’ was held at the MNK Czapski Palace, presenting the donations that were added to the Numismatic Cabinet’s collection between 2000 and 2016. At the time, we displayed a selection of items from a total of almost 30,000 that had enriched our collection during that period.

The following decade has shown that we continue to enjoy the trust of our donors. Our collection has grown once again, this time by over 15,000 numismatic items. Among them are objects from all historical periods and the farthest corners of the world. We also have numerous gold-struck specimens here, as well as unique items. A significant group is also made up of archival materials related to the lives and activities of researchers and collectors.

In addition, the collection transferred to us via the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage comprised over 13,000 items, most of which were assembled by soldiers of General Władysław Anders’ (1892–1970) 2nd Corps of the Polish Armed Forces whilst in Palestine.

In the current exhibition, we would like to present – using a few examples – the various motivations that guided our donors when they donated to us, whether individual items or collections built up over decades. 

18 September 2026–31 January 2027

Venue: MNK Main Building

To mark the 130th anniversary of Józef Czapski’s birth and the announcement of the artist as Patron of the Year 2026, the National Museum in Kraków is organising a commemorative exhibition, which will take place in the MNK Main Building in the ‘Curator’s Choice’ gallery (September 2026 – January 2027). The exhibition will primarily feature paintings, but also drawings from private collections (both domestic and international), supplemented by works of art from the museum’s own collections. A significant proportion of the works have never been exhibited or are rarely shown. The exhibition will provide an opportunity to showcase the many facets of MNK Czapski’s art. We will display portraits, still lifes, landscapes and genre scenes, whilst also highlighting MNK Czapski’s pre-war work, which remains the least well-known. In doing so, we will invite the viewer to discover the painter’s unique stylistic vocabulary.

Permanent exhibition

Venue: MNK Czapski Pavilion, 1st floor

“I wrote just ‘memento!’ on the cover of this new notebook. For I was thinking not only of memento mori, but of memento vitae, the life that still lies ahead of me, whether it lasts a day or a few years!” – noted Józef Czapski in diary entry number 240 from December 1987, one of his last. The exhibition presents the entire collection of paintings by the author of In an Inhuman Land held by the National Museum in Kraków. It currently comprises (as of

31 December 2025) 27 oil paintings and 2 oil sketches, and is the largest collection of works by MNK Czapski in Poland. The collection was assembled mainly through donations, as well as individual purchases, and is highly representative. The earliest painting, Patrycja Neway in ‘Tosca’ (1953), was donated by Barbara and Richard Aeschlimann; the latest works date from the late 1980s and early 1990s. The unusual arrangement enhances the impact of these works. In the depths of the exhibition, MNK Czapski gazes at us from a photograph taken in his Kraków studio in the 1920s, surrounded by his favourite objects.

Permanent exhibition

Venue: MNK Czapski, Józef Czapski Pavilion, 2nd floor

The biographical exhibition has been enriched with new acquisitions: six watercolours from an undated notebook by Józef MNK Czapski, presented to Krystyna and Andrzej Wajda on 28 June 1984 during one of their visits to Maisons-Laffitte. The watercolours and the dedication (“To my very dear Wajdas, with all my gratitude and friendship, Józef Czapski, 28 June 1984”) were cut out of the notebook and framed in 1985 by Andrzej Wajda. The watercolours, together with the dedication, are a gift from Krystyna Zachwatowicz-Wajda to the MNK. Furthermore, all narratives and quotations from Józef MNK Czapski’s books have been supplemented with English translations.