On the tenth anniversary of the death of Mieczysław Porębski, the MOCAK Library will host a display of photographs and portraits of this outstanding theoretician, critic and art historian. We will present objects from the Museum Archives: photographs from the time of the occupation, family photographs and documentation of Porębski’s foreign travels. An important part of the exhibition will be the Professor’s portraits made by artists who were friends of his: Janina Kraupe-Świderska, Jerzy Panek and Ryszard Winiarski. We will also show little-known of Porębski’s own self-portraits drawing from the time of his studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Krakow. The presentation will be completed by a humorous psychological analysis of the Professor’s handwriting and his horoscope, drawn up by Janina Kraupe-Świderska.

The show will introduce us, also in a private context, to the figure of Mieczysław Porębski and the story of his friendship. We will see his various facets: critic, writer and museologist. And in the background: actor, draughtsman, logician and charismatic director of the Institute of Art History at Jagiellonian University.

The location of the exhibition is important – the intimate space of the MOCAK Library, which includes an interior modelled on the Professor’s study in Krakow and his book collection of over four thousand volumes. These books, along with  just about everything on art, reveal the wide span of Mieczysław Porębski’s interests: from mathematics and physics to philosophy, anthropology and contemporary poetry. This is the library of a versatile humanist, interested in almost every field of knowledge. The library is complemented by the Professor's art collection, comprising paintings had had received from friends, the most eminent contemporary Polish artists.

The Mieczysław Porębski archive is an important part of MOCAK collections. The objects it holds provide an insight into the scholarly work of this renowned intellectual. The collection, which is currently being inventoried, includes draft versions of articles with his handwritten corrections, recordings of lectures, publishing reviews, reviews of works by students and doctoral students and lecture slides. Another collection includes private correspondence, school and university certificates, family photographs and official letters, providing an insight into everyday life in the People’s Republic of Poland.

The exhibition can be seen during the Library opening hours >>