A curator-guided tour of the exhibition Tempus fugit. On time and transience.

3rd March, 6:00 p.m.
A curator-guided tour of the exhibition Tempus fugit. On time and transience.
Tour included in the admission price.

The inevitable passage of time, transience and falling into oblivion are subjects which have been present in art for centuries. This exhibition of early modern graphic art showcases these themes, invoking the era of Descartes and Voltaire. A broad selection of prints – still lifes, allegoric figures of virtues and vices, series of portraits and images of city ruins examines the passage of time from various angles. The exhibition focuses on the phenomenon of transience, with its positive aspects: memory, duration and fame, but also those connected with death, destruction and oblivion. Other transformations wrought by time are depicted in images of growing up or adapting to fashions and trends.

The exhibition presents prints by such artists as Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Egidius Sadeler, Hendrick Hondius and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. Also included, as a counterpoint to these historical images, are selected works by twentieth-century Polish conceptualists: Roman Opałka, Stanisław Dróżdż and Zygmunt Rytka. Their works, from the borderline of figuration and abstract forms, supplement the exhibition with a contemporary understanding of time and transience.

The exhibition is the tenth display of graphic art prepared in collaboration with the Scientific Library of PAU and PAN in Kraków.