The Exhibition That Never Happened… Ignacy Łopieński (1865–1941) and the Revival of Printmaking

The exhibition presents the life and work of Ignacy Łopieński, a Polish printmaker who followed in the footsteps of his great predecessors, most notably Rembrandt, devoting a substantial part of his creative activity to original prints.

At the outset of his career, he made a name for himself as an author of etched reproductions of works by Polish painters, mostly those active in Munich, where he also studied. He continued his education in France. Apart from original and reproductive prints, Łopieński made graphic designs and bookplates. Member of a famous bronze artist family from Warsaw, he was also educated in this discipline, and designed medals and sculptures. Nevertheless, the graphic arts remained his main creative focus. Polish art historians hailed him as the “rejuvenator of the Polish graphic arts”, ts most outstanding figure, “the apostle and reviver of printmaking.”

The crowning point of Łopieński’s oeuvre was to be a monographic jubilee exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw, to which Łopieński donated a large set of prints, drawing studies and matrices. The opening was scheduled to take place in the autumn of 1939, however the outbreak of World War II put a stop to these plans.