CATALOGUE / Czarny karnawał. Ensor / Wojtkiewicz / Black Carnival. Ensor / Wojtkiewicz

Czarny karnawał. Ensor / Wojtkiewicz / Black Carnival. Ensor / Wojtkiewicz, exhibition catalogue, edited by Agnieszka Lajus, Kamilla Pijanowska-Badysiak, graphic design by Agata Biskup, ill., The National Museum in Warsaw (Warsaw, 2025), pp. 356, ISBN 978-83-7100-507-7

The bilingual catalogue accompanying the Black Carnival. Ensor / Wojtkiewicz exhibition comprises four comprehensive essays that compare the imaginations of these two representatives of Young Belgium and Young Poland. Their art, immersed in dreamy realms, the subconscious and fears, raises universal questions that were also present in literature, theatre and philosophy at the turn of the century. The catalogue’s sections reflect the most prevalent motifs in Ensor and Wojtkiewicz’s works. A special and graphically unique addition to the publication is an insert with a poem by Jarosław Mikołajewski, written especially for the exhibition. Both the theatrical display, enriched with masks, puppets, and carnival costumes, as well as contextual works by symbolists from Poland and Belgium, and the accompanying catalogue, are an invitation into a mysterious world of fantasy and irony – a parade of masqueraders, behind which lies the question about the essence of human nature.