The Centre of Polish Sculpture ( pl, Centrum Rzeźby Polskiej) in

Orońsko Orońsko is a village in Szydłowiec County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Orońsko. It lies approximately north-east of Szydłowiec and south of Warsaw ...

, near Radom, Poland, is a museum housed at Józef Brandt’s 19th-century manor house. The centre's collections comprise 621 sculptures, installations and other art forms owned by the centre, as well as 173 deposit items. The collections additionally include 70 paintings, drawings and tapestries. The centre's activities and the manor complex are maintained by the Joseph Brandt Foundation. The centre also provides technical support for artists who participate in its Sculpting Program.

Józef Brandt's manor house

Józef Brandt's manor house was built in the second half of the 19th century in an Italian neo-Renaissance style. It accommodates a permanent exhibit of 19th-century manor interiors. The ambiance of a 19th-century country mansion is preserved in the furniture: Louis Philippe,

Biedermeier The ''Biedermeier'' period was an era in Central Europe between 1815 and 1848 during which the middle class grew in number and the arts appealed to common sensibilities. It began with the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in ...

and

neo-Rococo The Rococo Revival style emerged in Second Empire France and then was adapted in England. Revival of the rococo style was seen all throughout Europe during the 19th century within a variety of artistic modes and expression including decorative ...

pieces. Drawings and paintings by Józef Brandt,

Jacek Malczewski Jacek Malczewski (; 15 July 1854 – 8 October 1929) was a Polish symbolist painter who is one of the most revered painters of Poland, associated with the patriotic Young Poland movement following a century of Partitions. He is regarded as the f ...

, Juliusz Kossak,

Apoloniusz Kędzierski Apoloniusz Kędzierski (1 July 1861, Suchedniów – 21 September 1939, Warsaw) was a Polish painter, illustrator and decorator, known for landscapes and scenes of peasant life. Biography He attended the public schools in Radom, then took art le ...

and Alfred Schouppé, and sculptures by Pius Welloński and Feliks Georg Pffeifer, complement the exhibit.

The manor complex

The manor complex also includes an orangery, chapel, annex, granary, coach-house and stables. The orangery, built 1869, once served both as a hothouse and as Brandt's atelier. Today it is a venue for temporary exhibits. Changing exhibits are held in the old manor chapel, built 1841. The annex — created from the earliest

orangery — accommodates the centre's administration and the Friends of Sculpture. The coach-house, erected by Brandt in 1905, houses a permanent sculpture gallery. Since 1995 it has showcased Magdalena Abakanowicz’s ''Ukon'', from her cycle, ''War Games''. Brandt's stable has been adapted into six sculpting ateliers.

Centre of Polish Sculpture

The centre's sculpture garden was created in 1965. That same year, work began on establishing a Sculpting Program. The Friends of Sculpture was founded in 1969. The year 1981 saw the establishment, with Ministry of Art and Culture support, of a state ''Museum and Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko''. Four years later, the institution was renamed the ''Centre of Polish Sculpture''. A Museum of Contemporary Sculpture, and a sculpture garden designed by Professor Grzegorz Kowalski, were completed in 1992. In 1997, the Józef Brandt Foundation was chartered. The Centre of Polish Sculpture's collections comprise 621 sculptures, installations and other art forms that are property of the centre, as well as 173 deposit items. The collections also include 70 drawings, paintings and tapestries. The Sculpture Garden contains 93 works by 77 artists. The centre's holdings include works by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Mirosław Bałka, Krzysztof M. Bednarski,

Jan Berdyszak Jan Berdyszak (15 June 1934 –18 September 2014) was a Polish artist. From 1952 to 1958, he studied at the Sculpture Department of the State College of Fine Arts in Poznań (now Fine Arts Academy), where he eventually returned as a lecturer. He ...

, Tadashi Hashimoto, Władysław Hasior,

Maria Jarema Maria Jarema (24 November 1908 – 1 November 1958) was a Polish painter, sculptor, scenographer and actress. Life and career She was born on 24 November 1908 in Staryi Sambir (Polish: ) in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (currently Ukra ...

, Grzegorz Klaman,

Katarzyna Kobro Katarzyna Kobro (26 January 1898 – 21 February 1951) was a Polish avant-garde sculptor and a prominent representative of the Constructivist movement in Poland. A pioneer of innovative multi-dimensional abstract sculpture, she rejected Aes ...

Zofia Kulik Zofia Kulik (born 1947 in Wrocław, Poland) is a Polish artist living and working in Łomianki (Warsaw), whose art combines political criticism with a feminist perspective. Career Kulik studied at the Sculpture Department of the Academy of Fin ...

, Teresa Murak,

Adam Myjak Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

, Jan de Weryha-Wysoczanski and

Józef Szajna Józef Szajna (; 13 March 1922 in Rzeszów, Poland – 24 June 2008 in Warsaw) was a Polish set designer, director, playwright, theoretician of the theatre, painter and graphic artist. During the Second World War and occupation of Poland, S ...

. The centre maintains a reference library on sculpture and related fields.

The Sculpting Program

The centre's Sculpting Program offers the availability of 6 ateliers, a 5,200 m² work yard, and technical workshops for metalworking, woodworking, ceramics, foundry-work and conservation.

Publications

The centre publishes * The annual, ''Polish Sculpture''; * Orońsko Seminars; * The sculpture quarterly, ''Orońsko''; * Monographs on Polish sculptors; * Thematic publications and catalogs.

The Józef Brandt Foundation

The non-profit Józef Brandt Foundation was inaugurated in 1997, charged with preserving the historic

gardens and manor complex, and supporting the activities of the Centre of Polish Sculpture.

External links

Centre of Polish Sculpture
official website. {{authority control Art museums and galleries in Poland Sculpture galleries Szydłowiec County Museums in Masovian Voivodeship Art museums established in 1981 1981 establishments in Poland Sculpture gardens, trails and parks in Europe