The BWA Contemporary art gallery

‘The beginnings of collecting are as distant and as mysterious as the beginnings of art itself,‘ wrote Pierre Cabanne in the book Le Roman des grands collectionneurs, Paris 1961. ‘The need to possess, the need to gather and store objects or images, is closely related to a fondness for rare and peculiar things, with man’s instinct for discovery.’

The beginnings of art collecting are usually similar: for various reasons, intentions, or motivations, someone comes into possession of works of art. This can be an investment idea–a capitalization of funds. In such cases, the collection, even if numerous, reflects the art market: established positions or those indicating an upward trend determine the acquisition strategy. Very often, capital investment remains the sole reason for collecting paintings, sculptures, and other art objects.

It is not the number of gathered artistic objects but the overarching motive for collecting them that determines whether a group of objects becomes a collection and the person striving to possess them becomes a collector.

‘The collector is an artist who discovers a work of art–let us repeat after Cabanne–but it must correspond to his personal ideal and must be useful for perfecting his own work–the collection.’

Andrzej Starmach, a distinguished art dealer, observes in his many years of practice that among art buyers in Poland, 96 percent are investors, while the rest are true collectors–people who creatively develop their passion for collecting art.

The owner of the collection, currently exhibited at BWA Gallery, is an economist by education and profession. He began collecting artworks several years ago with an investment intention, which he does not hide. However, he quickly became an art lover, and this changed the nature of his choices. Usually, a lover precedes a connoisseur. The collector concentrated the first circle of his acquisitions around the great names of 20th-century Polish avant-garde—these were, of course, also ‘pillars of investment’. (The first purchases were screen prints by Jan Tarasin, followed by works by Henryk Stażewski and Magdalena Abakanowicz). He set further circles and horizons as an art enthusiast. The choices of subsequent works consistently stemmed from previous ones, and his collection gained a unique, original, and unparalleled profile.

In the collection currently exhibited at BWA Gallery, the works of the following artists resonate with each other: Magdalena Abakanowicz, Mirosław Bałka, Stanisław Baj, Natalia Bażowska, Jan Berdyszak, Tamara Berdowska, Grzegorz Bienias, Bolesław Biegas, Rafał Bujnowski, Martyna Czech, Tadeusz Dominik, Stanisław Dróżdż, Edward Dwurnik, Łukasz Dziedzic, Wojciech Fangor, Stanisław Fijałkowski, Stanisław Gadomski, Andrzej Gieraga, Stefan Gierowski, Wanda Gołkowska, Jerzy Grabowski, Dorota Grynczel, Edward Hartwig, Mieczysław Janikowski, Małgorzata Jastrzębska, Tadeusz Kantor, Tomasz Kawiak, Koji Kamoji, Jerzy Kałucki, Bronisław Kierzkowski, Grupa The Krasnals, Aleksander Kobzdej, Bartosz Kokosiński, Bogdan Korczowski, Paweł Kowalewski, Jarosław Kozłowski, Ewa Kuryluk, Andrzej Lachowicz, Natalia Lach-Lachowicz, Jean Lambert-Rucki, Jan Lebenstein, Alfred Lenica, Norman Leto, Juliusz Lewandowski, Zbigniew Libera, Marcin Maciejowski, Waldemar Mazurek, Eugeniusz Markowski, Julia Medyńska, Igor Mitoraj, Henryk Musiałowicz, Zdzisław Nitka, Jerzy Nowosielski, Roman Opałka, Kazimierz Ostrowski, Jan Pamuła, Teresa Pągowska, Łukasz Patelczyk, Włodzimierz Pawlak, Artur Przebindowski, Erna Rosenstein, Zbigniew Rogalski, Joanna Sarapata, Jacek Sienicki, Radek Szlaga, Marek Sobczyk, Kajetan Sosnowski, Radosław Sowiak, Franciszek Starowieyski, Henryk Stażewski, Andrzej Szewczyk, Jan Tarasin, Leon Tarasewicz, Tomasz Tatarczyk, Ryszard Wojtkiewicz, Xawery Wolski, Ryszard Winiarski, Victor Vasarely, Romano Zanotti, Hanna Zawa-Cywińska, Rajmund Ziemski, Jan Ziemski

The vernissage will be held on February 7, 2025, at 18:00. Entry to the vernissage is free of charge. The exhibition will run until March 9.