Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow

History

The Academy of Fine Arts (ASP) was originally a subdivision of the Jagiellonian University'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 whose most notable students there were Wojciech Korneli Stattler (a teacher of Jan Matejko) and Piotr Michałowski, equestrian master artist of the Romantic period.

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, 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, Jacek Malczewski (the father of Polish Symbolism), Jan Stanisławski, Leon Wyczółkowski, Konstanty Laszczka, Józef Mehoffer, Stanisław Wyspiański (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 Jan Matejko, 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: Jan Matejko

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: Teodor Axentowicz

1911–1912: Konstanty Laszczka

1912–1914: Jacek Malczewski

1914–1918: Józef Mehoffer

1918–1919: Wojciech Weiss

1919–1922: Józef Gałęzowski

1922–1927: Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz

1927–1928: Teodor Axentowicz

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)

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