At the Municipal Gallery bwa in Bydgoszcz, 3 Gdańska St., we present some exhibits from the latest collection of the Municipal Gallery bwa in Bydgoszcz. The exhibition showcases acquisitions from 2018–2020 and works that have undergone conservation in the last year. The Municipal Gallery bwa in Bydgoszcz, as an institution preparing temporary exhibitions, does not have a permanent exhibition. Acquired and vested works are very rarely presented to the public. Their choice is not accidental. Expanding the collection is done by purchasing works of contemporary artists connected with the gallery’s exhibition programme.
Among the objects presented within the exhibition will be works of artists such as: Kazimierz Drejas, Magdalena Dreścik, Dariusz Gackowski, Maurycy Gomulicki, Krzysztof Gruse, Elżbieta Jabłońska, Kazimierz Jułga, Krzysztof Maniak, Piotr Matuszek, Kuba Mozolewski, Marek Noniewicz, Aleksandra Simińska, Andrzej Sobiepan, Stanisław Stasiulewi7cz, Piotr Tołoczko.
works of art
The art collection of the Municipal Gallery bwa in Bydgoszcz contains nearly 700 items. Subsequent directors: Marian Turwid, Kazimierz Jułga, Wacław Kuczma, Karolina Leśnik have supported the idea of the institution gathering its own collection of modern art.
Currently, in the painting department there are 380 canvases; 75 works in the drawings department; 93 items in the graphic art department; 97 prints in the photography department; 5 works in the textile department, and 66 works classified as objects or sculptures. Additionally, in 2017 the Gallery accepted in deposit 20,000 black-and-white negatives by Ildefons Bańkowski. All purchased, vested and deposited works are stored in secure art warehouses. Over the last three years, several of them have been completely restored.
On the 70th anniversary of the Municipal Gallery bwa, we would like to show its unique value for documenting the history of Bydgoszcz and national art through exhibition activities and those related to making the collection available on the institution’s website.
library
Simultaneously with the establishment of the Artistic Exhibition Bureau in Bydgoszcz, books on art and exhibition catalogues had begun to be collected. This handy book collection became the beginning of the present library of the Municipal Gallery bwa in Bydgoszcz. Many of the oldest items have stamps of the Polish Association of Visual Artists (whose president was the first director of the Gallery – Marian Turwid) and the Contemporary Art Salon of the Artistic Exhibitions Bureau. The oldest copies date from the early 20th century.
The library collection is divided into two parts: exhibition catalogues documenting the activities of the Gallery and other centres, as well as publications on art in its broadest sense, including lexicons and encyclopaedias. Items are collected through purchase, inter-library exchange or are gifts from artists or various institutions. The library has nearly 2000 books and about 3000 catalogues. It is a handy substantive help for curators of the Gallery and people interested in using the publication on the spot.
Below are statements from some artists whose works are presented in the exhibition “Acquisitions 2.”