1875 -1950 · Young Poland, expression and liberation of color

Interior faces, incandescent landscapes and autonomous colors make Wojciech Weiss a major conduit between symbolism and Polish modernity.

Wojciech Stanisław Weiss was born in 1875 in Leorda, in what is now Romania, and died in Krakow in 1950. His family settled near Krakow during his adolescence. He first took evening classes before officially entering the Academy of Fine Arts in 1892. Trained in academic drawing then in Leon Wyczółkowski's master class, he quickly crossed several languages. Traveling to Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest and Paris introduced him to old masters, but also to Edvard Munch, the Secession and new forms of psychological expression. At the end of the 1890s, Weiss joined the Society of Polish Artists Sztuka and collaborated with the magazine zycie directed by Stanisław Przybyszewski. Melancholic belongs to this decisive period. The isolated figure, the closed pose and the silent atmosphere not only describe a temperament: they give a visible form to the spiritual fatigue of the end of the century. Weiss then painted self-portraits, feverish characters, rails crushed by heat and scenes where color and material amplify the inner state. After 1905, his work became clearer. The "white period" favored nudes, family scenes and landscapes by Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, where he lived with his wife and model Irena Silberberg. Whites, greens and pinks became luminous, then the 1920s and 1930s develop freer colorist painting. Weiss also worked in watercolor, engraving, monotypy and engraved wood, notably during stays in the south of France and the Baltic. Professor at the Krakow Academy in 1910, then rector on several occasions, he reformed the institution and helped to fully open his artistic studies to women. His long career spanned Young Poland, regained independence, the two wars and post-1945. Without locking himself into a single style, Weiss made color the instrument of a physical and psychological experience of the world. Without locking himself into a single style, Weiss made color the instrument of a physical and psychological experience of the world. Without locking himself into a single style, Weiss made color the instrument of a physical and psychological experience of the world. Without locking himself into a single style, Weiss made color the instrument of a physical and psychological experience of the world. Without locking himself into a single style, Weiss made color the instrument of a physical and psychological experience of the world. Without locking himself into a single style, Weiss made color the instrument of a physical and psychological experience of the world. Without locking himself into a single style, Weiss made color the instrument of a physical and psychological experience of the world. Without locking himself into a single style, Weiss made color the instrument of a physical and psychological experience of the world. Without locking himself into a single style, Weiss made color movement.

At Weiss, color does not cover emotion: it becomes its temperature, light and inner rhythm.