IRENA JAKIMOWICZ: AN IDEAL MUSEOLOGIST

Abstract

Having studied history of art on clandestine Warsaw University courses run in 1943–1944, Irena Jakimowicz (1922–1999) graduated in 1951. In 1945–1991, she worked at the National Museum in Warsaw, initially in the Educational Department, from 1953 in the Polish Graphic Arts Department, out of which in 1958 she selected works executed after 1914, turning them into the Department of Graphic Arts and Contemporary Drawings which she headed as curator. Until early 1982, the Department formed part of the Gallery of Contemporary Art, yet it subsequently gained autonomy as the Cabinet of Graphic Arts and Contemporary Drawings curated by Irena Jakimowicz. Jakimowicz mounted some dozens exhibitions, mainly monographic ones of Polish contemporary artists, e.g. Bronisław Wojciech Linke (1963), Zygmunt Waliszewski (1964), Feliks Topolski (1965), Wacław Wąsowicz (1969), Tadeusz Kulisiewicz (1971), Konstanty Brandel (1977), Henryk Gotlib (1980), Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1989/1990). All the exhibitions were accompanied by reasoned catalgoues. Furthermore, Jakimowicz authored several cross-sectional, such as ‘Within the Circle of the Rembrandt Tradition’ (1956), ‘From Young Poland to Today’ (1959), ‘Polish Contemporary Graphic Arts 1900–1960’ (1960), ‘The Formists’ (1985), ‘Five Centuries of Polish Prints’ (1997). In 1970, she defended her doctoral dissertation dedicated to the collector Tomasz Zieliński. Moreover, she authored many papers, reviews, and books, e.g. Witkacy – Chwistek – Strzemiński (1976), Witkacy Malarz [Witkacy the Painter] (1985), Jerzy Mierzejewski (1996). She was a wonderful Boss: demanding, but strict with herself, too. Attentive to her employees’ development, she could appreciate and use their abilities to their own benefit and to the benefit of their institution. Those who had the privilege and pleasure of cooperating with her, recall her with admiration saying what a likeable person she was.