The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (, usually abbreviated to ''ASP''), is a public institution of higher education located in the centre of

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, Poland. It is the oldest Polish

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function (such as ...

academy, established in 1818 and granted full autonomy in 1873. ASP is a state-run university that offers 5- and 6-year

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

programmes. As of 2007, the Academy's faculty comprised 94 professors and assistant professors as well as 147 Ph.D.s.

History

The Academy of Fine Arts (ASP) was originally a subdivision of the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

's Department of Literature and was initially (1818–1873) called the School of Drawing and Painting (''Szkoła Rysunku i Malarstwa''). Among its original teachers were Polish Neoclassicist Antoni Brodowski, and Franciszek Ksawery Lampi, a world-renowned landscape and portrait artist in

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

whose most notable students there were Wojciech Korneli Stattler (a teacher of Jan Matejko) and Piotr Michałowski, equestrian master artist of the

Romantic period Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

. ASP received the status of an independent institution of higher learning in 1873 as the School of Fine Arts (''Szkoła Sztuk Pięknych''). The first President of the Academy was painter

Jan Matejko Jan Alojzy Matejko (; also known as Jan Mateyko; 24 June 1838 – 1 November 1893) was a Polish painter, a leading 19th-century exponent of history painting, known for depicting nodal events from Polish history. His works include large scale ...

, who brought in other leading artists as professors including Jan Nepomucen Głowacki, the most outstanding landscape painter of the early 19th century in Poland, as well as Florian Cynk, Aleksander Gryglewski and Leopold Loeffler, member of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. The main building based on a neoclassical design by architect Maciej Moraczewski was erected in today's Matejko Square in 1879. In 1893–95 its principal was a broadly educated Władysław Łuszczkiewicz (another teacher of Jan Matejko and later, his close associate) who also served as conservator of architectural monuments in the city. Following the death of Jan Matejko in 1893, the next ASP President elected in 1895 was Julian Fałat, who remained at his post until 1909. Fałat gave the Academy a new direction by hiring new art instructors associated with contemporary Western art approaches and associated painters such as

Teodor Axentowicz Teodor Axentowicz (; 13 May 185926 August 1938) was a Polish-Armenian painter and university professor. He was also the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. As an artist, Axentowicz was famous for his portraits and scenes of Hutsul lif ...

Jacek Malczewski Jacek Malczewski (; 15 July 1854 – 8 October 1929) was a Polish symbolist painter who was one of the central figures of the patriotic Young Poland movement. His works combined the predominant style of his time with historical motifs of Pol ...

(the father of Polish Symbolism), Jan Stanisławski, Leon Wyczółkowski,

Konstanty Laszczka Konstanty Laszczka (born 3 September 1865 in Makowiec Duży; died 23 March 1956 in Kraków) was a Polish sculptor, painter, graphic artist, as well as professor and rector (academia), rector of the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Las ...

, Józef Mehoffer,

Stanisław Wyspiański Stanisław Mateusz Ignacy Wyspiański (; 15 January 1869 – 28 November 1907) was a Polish playwright, painter, poet, and interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created symbolic national dramas accordant with the artisti ...

(one of first in Europe to work in all genres), Wojciech Weiss, and Józef Pankiewicz among others. The first woman admitted to study at the Academy was Zofia Baltarowicz-Dzielińska, who, in 1917, gained a status of an auditor. Officially, women were allowed to become students over a year later, after the academy passed a resolution in December 1918. On the 100th anniversary of its founding, in 1979, the Academy was named for

, its founder and first president. In 2008 the Academy joined Icograda (the International Council of Graphic Design Associations) and became that organization's first educational member in Poland.

Rectors

The School of Fine Arts (director) * 1873–1893:

* 1893–1895: Władysław Łuszczkiewicz (acting rector) * 1895–1900: Julian Fałat The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (rector) * 1900–1909: Julian Fałat (till 1905 director of The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts) * 1909–1910: Leon Wyczółkowski * 1910–1911:

* 1911–1912:

* 1912–1914:

* 1914–1918: Józef Mehoffer * 1918–1919: Wojciech Weiss * 1919–1922: Józef Gałęzowski * 1922–1927: Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz * 1927–1928:

* 1928–1929: Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz * 1929–1931: Konstanty Laszczka * 1931–1932: Fryderyk Pautsch * 1932–1933: Józef Mehoffer * 1933–1936: Wojciech Weiss * 1936–1939: Fryderyk Pautsch * 1945–1949: Eugeniusz Eibisch (till 1947 active rector) * 1949–1950: Zbigniew Pronaszko * 1950–1951: Zygmunt Radnicki * 1951–1952: Konrad Srzednicki * 1952–1954: Mieczysław Wejman * 1954–1967: Czesław Rzepiński * 1967–1972: Mieczysław Wejman * 1972–1980: Marian Konieczny * 1980–1987: Włodzimierz Kunz * 1987–1993: Jan Szancenbach * 1993–1996: Włodzimierz Kunz * 1996–2002: Stanisław Rodziński * 2002–2008: Jan Pamuła * 2008–2012: Adam Wsiołkowski * 2012–2020: Stanisław Tabisz * 2020- : Andrzej Bednarczyk

Faculties

* Faculty of Painting **Department of Painting **Department of Drawing **Department of Additional Specializations **Department of Stage Design * Faculty of Sculpture **Department of Sculpture (I, II) **Department of Drawing **Department of Architecture-Sculpture Design * Faculty of Interior Design * Faculty of Intermedia * Faculty of Industrial Design **Department of Visual Communication **Department of Product Design * Faculty of Graphic Arts **Department of Graphic Arts **Department of Graphic Design **Department of Drawing and Painting * Faculty of Art Conservation * Interdisciplinary Department of Art History

Notable faculty members

* Miłosz Horodyski

Notable graduates

* Bronislaw Abramowicz * Ludmila Armata *

* Władysław T. Benda * Sasza Blonder * Tadeusz Brzozowski * Julian Fałat * Stanisław Frenkiel * Henryk Gotlib * Artur Grottger * Zbylut Grzywacz * Wojciech Jerzy Has * Maria Jarema * Ewa Juszkiewicz * Tadeusz Kantor * Carl Krull * Ephraim Moses Lilien * Tadeusz Makowski *

* Anton Manastyrski *

* Józef Mehoffer * Henryk Minkiewicz * Igor Mitoraj * Abraham Neumann * Jerzy Nowosielski *

Roman Petrović Roman Petrović (1896, in Donji Vakuf – 1947) was a Yugoslav painter and writer. He belongs to the generation of artists who created the history of Bosnian-Herzegovinian (and Yugoslav) painting between the two world wars. Biography Born to an et ...

Roman Polanski Raymond Roman Thierry Polański (; born 18 August 1933) is a Polish and French filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Roman Polanski, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Britis ...

* Stanislaw Przespolewski * Heinrich Rauchinger *

Tadeusz Rychter Tadeusz Rychter (c. 1873 in Lviv – 1943 in Warsaw) was a Polish early twentieth-century artist best remembered for his watercolors of the Holy Land.

* Wilhelm Sasnal *

Edward Rydz-Śmigły Marshal Edward Śmigły-Rydz also called Edward Rydz-Śmigły, (11 March 1886 – 2 December 1941) was a Polish people, Polish politician, statesman, Marshal of Poland and Commander-in-Chief of Poland's armed forces, as well as a painter and ...

Czesław Słania Czesław Słania (22 October 1921 Czeladź; 17 March 2005 Kraków) was a Polish postage stamp and banknote engraver, living in Sweden from 1956. According to the ''Guinness Book of World Records'', Słania was the most skilled and prolific of ...

* Adam Studziński * Boguslaw Szwacz * Zoja Trofimiuk * Petar Tiješić * Stanisław Tondos * Ivan Trush *

Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Witold Wajda (; 6 March 1926 – 9 October 2016) was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the "P ...

* Wojciech Weiss * Andrzej Wróblewski * Leon Wyczółkowski *

* Mariusz Zaruski

References

External links

Universities of Krakow
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jan Matejko Academy Of Fine Arts Educational institutions established in 1818 Universities and colleges in Kraków Arts organizations established in 1818 1818 establishments in Poland Universities and colleges established in the 1810s