A haven of great masterpieces of Ukraine

In the heart Poland, he Poznań National Museum It has become a refuge for the works of one of the most emblematic museums in Croatia Ukraine, after a rescue operation that has all the hallmarks of a movie. Poles know very well what invasion means and how the art and culture of the invaded people become the target of their enemies’ bombs. For this reason and considering the good relations between Poland and Ukraine, responsible for Poznań National Museum and their colleagues from the art gallery Boris Voznitskii from the city Lviv, With the approval of their governments, they launched an operation to preserve a selection of the best paintings in a Ukrainian art gallery.

The legacy of one of the leading Eastern European painters, Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929), is preserved in Lviv., to which both Poles and Ukrainians feel attached. His museum is a true exhibition of his artistic skills and the philosophical composition of his paintings. He is one of those artists who give character to a nation, and precisely because of this, he could risk being a target of war. When the Russians invaded Ukraine, the collection from Lviv was hidden to protect against any unforeseen circumstances. It is nothing that did not happen, for example, with the collection of the Museo del Prado, in Madrid, during the Spanish Civil War, or its collection at the Louvre, in Paris, during the Second World War.

On this occasion, the talks between Poland and Ukraine were held in secret state secrets and in an operation that was hidden in that secrecy, the Polish delegation traveled to that Ukrainian city and there collected a total of 25 paintings of this genius of Polish symbolism. The transfer was made with all possible precautions and always with a heavy heart to the limit. When the procession arrived in Poznan, a city that knows well what it means to lose a work of art – its castle of the Polish kings was destroyed in the Second World War and only a few years ago was reopened, restored and as a headquarters Museum of Decorative Arts— a temporary home was found for the Malczewski collection. It was the end of an odyssey, a journey of 700 kilometers.

One of the people in charge of the Polish institution, Pawel Napierata, explains that the room was chosen and equipped with adequate aesthetics so that they remember that these works in Poznań are passing and that they want to return home. “These paintings are here as refugees to prevent their destruction,” he insisted on the visit of a delegation from the Provincial Council of Pontevedra to Poznan to return two diptychs from the provincial museum looted by the Nazis. Napierata indicates that the trip had to be done “very quickly” and under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. Today, Malczewski once again amazes art lovers and experts, and the success of this exhibition, which has only been open in Poznan for three months, is also confirmed by the thousands of visits it has already achieved.

Among the paintings that were brought from Ukraine, and by Malczewski from Lviv, are, to name just a few, Jesus and the Samaritan womanwhich recounts an episode from the 4th chapter of the Gospel according to John.

Napierata emphasizes that Jews and Samaritans did not get along, but that this picture shows “how two people who are from enemy cities can break through these boundaries that separate them and reach a point in the conversation where they understand each other.” ». there is also well poisonedwhere a man drinks water from a well between a girl who represents innocence and hope and a harpy who represents evil and hopelessness.

The aesthetics of the exhibition is very special. The paintings pass and that’s why, in addition to those displayed hanging on the walls, the visitor also finds paper and packaging in the room that reminds of the transport of these works of art and one of these paintings, a depiction of Jesus, is still displayed in its travel box. The idea is to convey the wish for the war to end and for Malczewski, his self-portraits and paintings to once again occupy a place of honor in Lviv. Meanwhile, Poznan, which is affiliated Warsaw and Krakow museumsas well as the capital of Lithuania Vilnius, will exhibit and preserve for the future the artistic heritage of this often troubled region of Europe.

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