Warsaw. 18 works by renowned artists at auction on the 10th anniversary of the POLIN Museum

The number 18 has a special meaning in Jewish philanthropy – it means life and is supposed to bring good luck. This is how many works the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, together with DESA Unicum, collected at the charity auction “Friends for the POLIN Museum”, organized on the occasion of the Museum's 10th Birthday.

– We invited artists and collectors who are close to the mission of the POLIN Museum to the auction – says Katarzyna Wąs, co-coordinator of the auction. As he reminds, since its opening in 2014, the POLIN Museum has built a circle of renowned artists with whom it has cooperated on temporary exhibitions and important anniversaries and events.

Among the works included in the auction and pre-auction exhibition at the POLIN Museum is a graphic by Wilhelm Sasnal, whose exhibition “Wilhelm Sasnal: Such a Landscape” could be seen at the POLIN Museum a few years ago. The graphic, which can be auctioned for the museum, was created by the artist especially for this temporary exhibition. The exhibition was not the only project in which Sasnal was involved. On the occasion of the 80th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, he created an anniversary project muraland the artist's painting was included in the recently redesigned and newly opened space of the last gallery of the Museum's Permanent Exhibition, which tells about the contemporary life of Polish Jews.

Monika Drożyńska donated a work titled “Society is ready” for auction. She says this about her relationship with the museum: – The museum has a special place in my personal and professional life. I met people here who, with great kindness and sensitivity, introduced me to the fascinating world of Jewish culture. The experience in the museum opened one of the new paths in my work related to the Hebrew alphabet. I am grateful for our cooperation and look forward to more meetings.

The artist collaborated with the museum on the exhibition “From the Kitchen. Jewish Culinary Culture”, and recently the museum's collection was enriched with the work “Nobody Knows This” from the “Tablecloths” series from 2021.

The auction will also include a work by Artur Żmijewski, who, together with Zofia Waślicka-Żmijewska, created an installation on the occasion of the POLIN Museum exhibition “This is Muranów”. Żmijewski's work “Kibbutz”, which will be auctioned during the October auction, was prepared as an element for a competition commemorating the kibbutz in Grochów. The artist's work is deeply rooted in the history of Warsaw's Jews and brings back the memory of the city's forgotten history.

Activist Zuzanna Hertzberg has also been associated with the museum for years, and her work with a deeply Jewish meaning and deeply immersed in Jewish tradition is also part of the auction.

These are not the only names and the only works that were included in this auction for a reason. The Art & Modern Foundation donated the work of Hel Enri, i.e. Helena Berlewi, whose exhibition at the POLIN Museum ended in mid-September. The story of the artist, the mother of the famous artist Henryk Berlewi, was extraordinary – she started painting at the age of 79 and achieved international success. She continued to paint until her death at the age of 103, and her story shows that true talent knows no limits – age, culture or time. The story of Majer Kirszenblatt is also somewhat similar. He started painting at the age of 73, encouraged by his daughter, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. Born in 1916 in Opatów, Majer left for Canada before World War II. Endowed with an extraordinary memory, he began to paint what he remembered from the pre-war shtetl – Opatów. His paintings, supplemented with historical and cultural context, can be seen at the current exhibition “(post-)JEWISH… Abbots' Shtetl through the eyes of Majer Kirszenblat” at the POLIN Museum. Majer's work can also be auctioned for the museum.

Another work at the auction is a unique portrait of the Polish-Jewish-American psychiatrist, Ryszard Bychowski, by Ryszard Horowitz. The artist says this about his work: – I met Professor Gustaw Bychowski and took his portrait as a beginner photographer shortly after arriving from Krakow to New York in the early 1960s. Thanks to the kindness of Mrs. Hanna Mortkowicz-Olczakowa, his relative and mother of Joasia Olczak-Ronikier, my dear friend from the times of Piwnica Pod Baranami, I found myself in his elegant apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York. The professor was a famous psychiatrist, a student of Freud and one of the first Polish psychoanalysts interested in the world of art. Thanks to him, I found myself in the company of many unique people who made it easier for me to find my way in cosmopolitan New York. His profile as an outstanding Jewish-Polish-American scientist, a true gentleman, perfectly fits the bygone world represented by the POLIN Museum.

Tadeusz Rolke, whose series of photos depicting Warsaw athletes once hung on the fence surrounding the POLIN Museum that was just under construction, also agreed to take part in the auction.

The most wonderful thing about working on the auction was meeting people, the donors of the auction, from whom, in addition to their works, the museum asked them to say a few words about why POLIN is important to them. – Working in a museum every day, you can sometimes forget how unique this institution is and how important it is to so many people – says Agnieszka Dulęba-Wołodkiewicz from the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute in Poland, co-coordinator of the auction.

Among the artists for whom the museum is an extremely important institution is Małgorzata Rittersschild, whose painting is among the 18 works at auction. The artist's extraordinary work, begun in the 1980s, was completed this year.

Among the artists who donated works to the auction, there are also those whose stories the museum tells. Paweł Kowalewski says: – What connects me with the POLIN Museum? My grandmother. I decided to take part in the auction because I think it is a very good initiative. Not only the Ministry of Culture and the Capital City of Warsaw can finance museums, but also artists and donors. This is obvious and logical to me for a simple reason – supporting cultural and art institutions is in our common interest as a society.

Also Guy Yanai, an Israeli artist who decided to take part in the auction, has roots in Poland and supported the future of the museum because of the story and his role. Yanai, who had not been to Poland before, visited Warsaw on the occasion of the institution's 10th anniversary celebration.

Several works presented at the auction were created especially for this occasion, including Tomasz Poznysz, who painted Bathsheba, the biblical wife of King David, or Rafał Olbiński, an internationally recognized painter and illustrator.

– So far, as the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute in Poland, we have had experience in selling a painting by Ewa Juszkiewicz at Christie's in New York to the POLIN Museum, which was given to us by an anonymous donor – says Bartosz Dymarek, Development Director at SZIH. – I am very pleased that we can organize another auction project with DESA Unicum, the undisputed leader on the Polish art market. The auction in New York brought a record sum for the POLIN Museum and I hope that the upcoming one will also provide significant support for the museum's program activities – he adds.

Collectors also donated exhibits for the auction – anonymous donors donated works by Honza Zamojski and Wojciech Bąkowski. Marek Roefler, a donor to the museum, founder of the Villa Fleur Museum in Konstancin and a famous art collector, donated the work of Alfred Aberdam to the museum. The initiative was also supported by the Santander Bank Foundation, which donated Michał Zaborowski's work to the auction.

All works can be viewed at the Dziedzictwo Gallery during the opening hours of the POLIN Museum until October 16, the day of the auction, which will also take place at the Museum.

Auction date: October 16 (Wednesday), 7:00 p.m. in the main hall of the POLIN Museum

Exhibition date: October 2-16, 2024“Heritage” gallery of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, free admission during museum opening hours.

Online bidding is now open: October 2-16>>