We, Young Artists, Welcome the Masterpiece by Podkowinski with Utmost Joy

The painting is part of a series in which Maciejowski engages in dialogue with the world of art and its history, using means characteristic of comics. A clue for interpretation, and at the same time an ironic commentary on the condition of the modern-day artist, can be found in the words of Kazimierz Tetmajer placed in a caption box. The painting reproduced in the centre of this pictorial composition, Frenzy by Władysław Podkowiński, in its day a scandalous manifesto of the Young Poland artists and intellectuals, seems excessive in expression from the perspective of our time. A modern-day viewer is also less inclined to appreciate the innovative formal approach in the painting Lily of the Valley, by the same 19th-century artist, which is included in Maciejowski’s picture as well.