Mloda Polska

Młoda Polska 

the conventional name for the period in the development of Polish literature and plastic arts between 1890 and 1918. The term is also applied to the neoromantic tendencies in Polish literature and plastic arts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The realist school, represented by such writers as B. Prus, E. Orzeszkowa, M. Konopnicka, S. Zeromski, and W. Reymont, also flourished at this time.

The aesthetics of Mloda Polska as the totality of neoromantic tendencies (impressionism and symbolism in literature) was expounded in articles by A. Gorski, S. Przybyszewski, and Z. Przesmycki. It was a contradictory aesthetics, reflecting both the mystical and elitist attitudes of some members of the artistic intelligentsia and an individualist protest against the capitalist system and bourgeois culture. The works of a number of writers, notably S. Wyspiariski, J. Kasprowicz, and K. Tetmajer, reveal their efforts to reconcile the aesthetics of Mloda Polska with socially conscious, humanistic art.

In the plastic arts the Mtoda Polska movement brought together artists who were opposed to the dominant conservative trends and sought new means of expression. Some turned to folk subjects and folk art traditions. The movement did not produce an overall, coherent artistic program. Within the mainstream of Mloda Polska there coexisted such diverse styles as impressionism (the painters J. Pankiewicz, L. Wyczółkowski), symbolism in its various forms, (the painters F. Ruszczyc and J. Malczewski), and art nouveau (the painters and graphic artists S. Wyspianski, J. Mehoffer, W. Wojtkiewicz, K. Frycz), whose masters sought to create a national monumental-decorative style and to achieve universal forms. The Mloda Polska period saw the development of Polish sculpture, which was also influenced by impressionism and art nouveau (K. Laszczka, W. Szymanowski, and X. Dunikowski).

Młoda Polska architecture employed motifs from folk wood architecture. This trend led to the emergence of the Zakopane style (architect S. Witkiewicz) and to the spread of art nouveau, which sometimes acquired national-romantic overtones (architects T. Stryjeński and F. Mączyński).

An achievement of the Mloda Polska period was the rapid development of applied art, combining art nouveau elements with folk motifs in the design of books, magazines, interiors, furniture, metal objects, and rugs. The works of Wyspianski, Frycz, and W. Jastrzbowski exemplify this trend in applied art.

REFERENCES

Vitt, V. V. “Literatura 1890–1918 gg.” Istoriia pol’skoi literatury, vol. 2. Moscow, 1969.
Literatura okresu Młodej Polski, vols. 1–3. Warsaw, 1967–73.
Rogatko, B. Utopia Mtodej Polski. Łódź, 1972.
Dobrowolski, T. Sztuka Młodej Polski. Warsaw, 1963.
Sztuka Młodej Polski: Katalog wystawy. Kraków, 1965.
Wallis, M. Secesja. Warsaw, 1967.

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Młoda Polska 

(Young Poland), a revolutionary organization of Polish exiles that existed from 1834 to 1836. It was founded in Bern as part of the federation of Young Europe, led by G. Mazzini. Young Europe was a secret international association of revolutionary democratic organizations, whose goal was the establishment of a republican form of government in the European countries. Mloda Polska aimed at reestablishing Poland as an independent bourgeois-democratic republic. Headed by J. Lelewel, the organization exercised considerable influence on the conspiratorial revolutionary organizations operating in Poland.