Willmann: opus magnum

Abstract

A great monographic exhibition dedicated to Michael Willmann, one of the most prominent Baroque artists in Central Europe, popularly known as the Silesian Rembrandt. For the first time ever, art lovers are able to view under one roof an extraordinary selection of works by the Silesian master. The exhibition showcases some of his paintings on loan especially from Warsaw churches. The exhibition showcases around 100 paintings which constitute almost one-third of the surviving body of work by that artist, among them those depicting mythological and religious scenes, portraits and landscapes. After more than 75 years the famous cycle The Martyrdom of the Apostles, which in the years following the war was housed in various churches in Warsaw, has been reunited and presented in Lower Silesia. It is exhibited in the modern space of the Four Domes Pavilion Museum of Contemporary Art, a new branch of the National Museum in Wroclaw which was opened in 2016. To show Willmann's work in this unique scenography, with the use of modern presentation techniques and the possibilities offered by the astounding spaces of the Four Domes Pavilion poses not only an extraordinary challenge for museum experts, but is above all an attempt to pay spectacular tribute to the most distinguished artist who has ever lived and worked in Silesia.