The Faces of Czapski

Most people who know the name Józef Czapski know the writer: the witness to Katyn, the author of “Inhuman Land”. This show at the National Museum’s Main Building is about the painter, and most of what hangs here normally stays in private collections in Poland and abroad. Entry is included in the branch ticket, and the show runs until 31 January 2027.

National Museum in Krakow on the exhibition:

This anniversary exhibition, organised to mark the 130th anniversary of the artist’s birth and in the year dedicated to him, provides an opportunity to explore the many facets of Czapski’s art - hence its title. Dr Magdalena Ludera, the curator and author of the exhibition script, focused on Czapski as a painter and draughtsman, paying particular attention to his creative process. She pushed into the background the Czapski who was better known as a writer, diarist and art critic, as well as the Czapski who was a witness to the painful history of Poland and 20th-century Europe.

For this exhibition, we have brought together over fifty paintings and drawings, mainly from private collections (both domestic and foreign), sourced in particular from the direct heirs of the Czapski sisters. The family-oriented and intimate nature of these rarely exhibited works is reflected in the structure of the exhibition. The exhibition opens with self-portraits in the studio, which are surrounded by paintings and drawings of people close to him (including tender portraits of family members), objects (still lifes, which he persistently returned to throughout his life) and landscapes (including the family estates).

What to expect

This is one room, not a whole floor. The show fills the room the museum calls “Wybór kuratora” (Curator’s Choice) on the second floor of the Main Building, and guided tours meet in the hall outside its entrance. The museum’s director told journalists (as reported by PAP) that it sits within the Gallery of 20th- and 21st-century Polish Art, so the permanent collection is right outside the door.

The layout is easy to follow. Self-portraits come first, surrounded by family, objects and views. At the back the museum has grouped the pictures Czapski himself called “crazy” and paired them with keywords. According to the Krakow news site LoveKraków, the considered, analytical pictures include objects from his 17-square-metre room in Maisons-Laffitte, while the back of the room is all intense colour and heavy black outline. The same report says the show spans the 1920s to the 1980s; from the 1920s comes “Pejzaż jesienny. Tatry” (Autumn Landscape. The Tatras), considered his oldest painting.

Among the works the museum features on its exhibition page:

• “Self-Portrait with a Sketchbook” (1951, Krzysztof Musiał Collection) - the painter with his sketchbook, drawing and painting in one picture; the show opens with his self-portraits in the studio.
• “Self-Portrait” (c. 1953, Grzegorz Przewłocki Collection) - a second self-portrait from the 1950s, also privately owned.
• “Radiator” (1960, collection of Ewa and Janusz Lipiecki) - an everyday object as the whole subject of a painting.
• “Vase and Green Curtain” (1978, private collection) - one of the still lifes he kept coming back to.
• “Shining Cloud” (1981, National Museum in Kraków) - a late work from the museum’s own holdings.

A catalogue with full-page photographs of the works accompanies the show.

Context

Józef Czapski (1896-1993) trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow under Józef Pankiewicz, then spent 1924-1931 painting in Paris with the group known as the Kapists. Captured by the Soviets in 1939, he survived the prisoner-of-war camps at Starobilsk and Gryazovets. In Anders’ Polish army he then searched for the missing Polish officers, who turned out to have been murdered at Katyn, and wrote about it in “Inhuman Land”.

From 1947 until his death he lived in Maisons-Laffitte outside Paris, in the house that was also the office of the émigré journal “Kultura”. Communist censorship kept his name out of print in Poland, so his painting only reached a wider Polish public after 1989.

The link to this museum is a family one: its oldest branch was founded by the painter’s grandfather, Emeryk Hutten-Czapski. Poland’s parliament named Czapski a patron of 2026, and the museum’s director calls this the museum’s most important show of Czapski’s painting.

Tickets and time

45 PLN regular, 35 PLN reduced, at the desk or at bilety.mnk.pl. That is the ticket to the whole branch, so the same price also buys the permanent galleries and the Van Gogh. The building’s price list also shows a separate temporary-exhibition ticket (35/25 PLN), but this show’s page says plainly that entry is included in the branch ticket. Children under 7 go free.

The museum’s free Tuesdays apply, according to its price list, to permanent exhibitions. The show’s page does not say whether they cover this temporary show, so ask at the desk before planning a Tuesday visit. The branch is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00-18:00 (10 AM-6 PM) and closed on Mondays. The address is al. 3 Maja 1.

Allow 45-60 minutes for the room alone, two hours if you add the 20th-century Polish gallery around it. A museum guide costs 270 PLN in a foreign language (190 PLN in Polish), plus admission tickets.

Best for readers of Czapski’s books who have never seen his paintings, and for anyone who knows the collection in the Czapski Pavilion and wants to see the works from private collections. If you came for the biography, Starobilsk and Katyn, go to the Pavilion instead: the curator deliberately set those themes aside here.

English on site: the museum publishes a full English page for the show, including the curator’s text, but does not say whether the wall labels are bilingual. None of the announced tours is in English. The building’s price list offers English audio guides (7 PLN) without saying whether they cover this show.

Events

Booking for all three goes through the museum’s reservation centre: +48 12 43 35 744, extension 2, weekdays 9:00-16:00, or rezerwacja@mnk.pl for the curator’s tour and the walk.

• 22 Nov 2026, 12:00-13:00 - curator’s tour with Dr Magdalena Ludera, included in the ticket, booking opens on 9 November - details
• 19 Nov 2026, 11:00-12:00 - curator’s tour for visitors aged 60+, 5 PLN, phone booking only, opens on 9 November - details
• 10 Oct 2026, 11:00-13:30 - “Krakow and the Czapskis” city walk, starting in the exhibition and ending at ul. Rajska 1, 30 PLN, booking opens on 28 September, tickets bought at the desk on the day - details

What the press says

PAP, the Polish Press Agency (17 Sep 2026, via dzieje.pl): a report from the press view, where the museum’s director, Andrzej Szczerski, called this the museum’s most important show of Czapski’s painting - link (Polish-language source). The curator, Dr Magdalena Ludera, says in it that she wants the viewer “to look and take it in” (our translation).

LoveKraków (17 Sep 2026, signed “Redakcja”, the editorial team): an opening report that describes how the room splits into analytical and “crazy” pictures and names “Pejzaż jesienny. Tatry” as the painting considered his oldest - link (Polish-language source).

Label Magazine (18 Sep 2026, MG): a preview that stresses the show’s intimate tone and quotes the curator on the family portraits, the pre-war views of the family estate, and views of Paris and Brittany - link (Polish-language source).

Three pieces so far, all previews and opening reports. We had found no critical review as of 23 September 2026.

Updates

• 23 Sep 2026 - page created; dates, prices, hours and events checked against the National Museum in Krakow’s own pages. The quotation above is the museum’s own English text, taken from its English page for the show.

See also

• Czapski Museum - the Józef Czapski Pavilion, with a biographical display, 27 oil paintings from the museum’s collection and a life-size reconstruction of his room in Maisons-Laffitte. The natural companion to this show, because it covers the biography left out here.
• Vincent van Gogh: Country Cottages Among the Trees - in the same building and on the same ticket, until 31 December 2026.
• In the Paris Atelier of Stanisław Wyspiański and Józef Mehoffer - Polish painters in Paris a generation before the Kapists, at the Stanisław Wyspiański Museum until 31 December 2026.

Tickets, opening hours, and current details are on the National Museum in Krakow website .

Museum profile: National Museum in Krakow - Main Building .