It’s difficult to say when Kraków started playing such an important role in the history of Polish art. Almost all potential beginnings – even if we just stick to contemporary art – have roots in previous generations. Let’s take Tadeusz Kantor – how can we even begin to talk about him without mentioning the original Cricot Theatre, Maria Jarema or Henryk Wiciński? And what about them? Then again, would have the First Kraków Group been founded without heated discussions on modernism held in bustling cafés, as opposed the fossilised atmosphere of the Academy of Fine Arts? What about Stanisław Wyspiański? Would he have become successful were it not for the support he received from Jan Matejko?

Kraków was home to Poland’s first national art institutions: the country’s first Academy of Fine Arts was founded here in 1818 at the Faculty of Philosophy at the Jagiellonian University (as the School of Drawing and Painting). Founded in 1854, the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts was a private organisation aiming to disseminate knowledge about art throughout Poland’s three partitions and provide financial support for artists. Poland’s first National Museum was also founded in Kraków in 1879; originally located in the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice, still a branch of the museum), today it is the largest institution of its kind in Poland. The first item in its collection was Henryk Siemiradzki’s “Nero’s Torches”, donated by the artist.

These artists – Symbolists and heirs of Impressionism – were soon succeeded by the next generation. Much had changed in the newly independent Poland: women gained the right to vote in 1918, and new hierarchies and sensitivities arose affecting all spheres of life including art. In the late 1920s, left-wing students at the Academy of Fine Arts dreamt of a just world and modern art. Although their works show a fascination with geometric forms, they were not aiming to develop a common aesthetic; they all worked on their own, gathering in the evenings to discuss the future over tea.

This was the beginning of the Kraków Group, whose members included Aleksander (Sasza) Blonder (AKA André Blondel), Blima (Berta) Grünberg, Maria Jarema, Franciszek Jaźwiecki, Leopold Lewicki, Adam Marczyński, Stanisław Osostowicz, Szymon Piasecki, Mojżesz Schwanenfeld, Bolesław Stawiński, Jonasz Stern, Eugeniusz Waniek, Henryk Wiciński and Aleksander Winnicki. The students were detested by the establishment, and their art – bold, thoroughly modern, bearing resemblance to that being created in Paris and London – had ambitions to change the world. In contrast to previous generations, they were more interested in international avantgarde trends than Polish traditions.

The Group’s artistic expression wasn’t limited to painting and sculpture; they wrote satirical scripts and those involved with Józef Jarema’s Cricot Theatre also designed and made costumed and set designs and appeared on stage. The young artists gathered at the Artists’ House at Łobzowska Street – home of the Association of Polish Artists and Designers, founded in Kraków in 1911. The Modernist building is still the organisation’s headquarters, and the ground floor continues to operate as a coffee shop.

Although since 1989 the majority of Poland’s commercial galleries with international ambitions have set up home in Warsaw, Kraków is undoubtedly filled with fascinating art galleries and phenomena. The spirit of self-organisation, rooted in the thinking of members of both Kraków Groups, continues to inspire Cracovian artists, curators and critics. Over the last three decades, the city has seen the rise and fall of numerous independent spaces focusing on contemporary art with artists of all generations presenting their latest works. Of the dozens of Cracovian galleries, Zderzak has been operating for the longest (since the 1980s); the F.A.I.T. Gallery is now at its fifth site, while some of the finest latest initiatives include the Shefter Gallery, the Potencha Gallery ran by an artists’ collective, and the Elementarz Dla Mieszkańców Miast operating from an attic at Asnyka Street.

The Academy of Fine Arts continues to play an important role in educating artists acclaimed at home and abroad. They include members of the Ładnie Group Rafał Bujnowski, Marcin Maciejowski and Wilhelm Sasnal.