Władysław Wołkowski Museum in Olkusz
Museums
ul. Szpitalna 33, 32-300 Olkusz
Tourist region: Kraków i okolice
tel. +48 324943966
tel. +48 327544455
tel. +48 327544455
Unusual utility items made of wicker; chairs and tables that are still surprising with their originality are all works of Władysław Wołkowski (1902–1986), a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw known as the "Michelangelo of wicker".
It is no accident that the works of this precursor of modern design were presented and decorated with a gold medal at the 1937 World Exhibition of Art and Technology in Paris. Wołkowski's "Polish strojeńce" – large, colourful tapestries and rugs are particularly worth seeing. In the Władysław Wołkowski Museum, you can admire furniture constructed of wicker, cane, wood and string; platters, tapestries, wicker portraits and landscapes, images of Slavic deities, figures from folk tales and history altars – compositions dedicated to the Warsaw Uprising, the Battle of Grunwald, and the Battle of Vienna. The collection also includes sketches, drawings and notes of this extraordinary artist, who in the post-war period was a co-creator of the Polish wicker craft, as well as the author of the concept of so-called poetic apartment. The collection, which is housed in the historic Machnicki Family Mansion from the mid-19th century, is the largest collection of his works in Poland.