June 1 - December 30, 2024
Leopold Gottlieb (1879 Drohobych - 1934 Paris) - Polish painter and draughtsman, younger brother of painter Maurycy Gottlieb (1856-1879), graduate of the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, together with Witold Wojtkiewicz, co-initiated the formation of the “Group of Five.” Soldier and documentalist of the Polish Legions. Later, he advocated the importance of the Legions in Poland's recovery of independence. Polish patriot. Living most of his life in France and active in the Viennese and Parisian artistic circles (Mela Muter, Eugeniusz Zak, Mojżesz Kisling), he constantly maintained close relations with Polish associations, including Warsaw's “Rytm” and Kraków's “Formiści.”
The aim of the project is to digitize and secure, followed by the initial partial study of the artist's legacy preserved in family collections, including sketches, prints, period photographic documentation and the artist's extensive correspondence, totaling more than 1,500 objects.
Leopold Gottlieb was one of the most important representatives of Polish interwar art. He was a renowned artist in Poland, Austria, France and other European countries as well as in the United States and Israel. He was associated with the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts (Group of Five), where he studied in the years 1896–1902 with Jacek Malczewski and Teodor Axentowicz, and then with the Polish artistic circles in Vienna and Paris, which he significantly shaped. During World War I, he was an active participant in the fight for independence. He served in the Polish Legions, at the same time being their documentalist. His drawings depicting Józef Piłsudski and other military leaders were widely disseminated to support the idea of Poland's restitution. During the interwar period he was also associated with the artistic association "Rytm" founded in Warsaw and the Kraków's "Formiści".
Digitization, preservation and study of the legacy of this artist is the main objective of the project. The project is important for the development of research on Polish national heritage and is in line with the assumptions of the "Protection program", which aims to protect particularly valuable elements of Polish cultural heritage which remain outside Poland ("Ochrona Polskiego Dziedzictwa Kulturowego za Granicą").
The project was co-financed by funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Fund for Promotion of Culture - state purpose fund, in accordance with agreement no. 04816/21/FPK/POLONIKA.
