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Greetings from Kraków: The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

Jeff Taylor. Fot. Sławomir Ostrowski

„The weather is here, wish you were beautiful. …There’s no place like home when you’re this far away.” Jimmy Buffett

Traditions are nice but don’t treat them as laws. If you decide not to follow one of them, the police won’t come and arrest you. However, I do believe they are good for society, either country or village. Thanks to them people have a common identity, a reason to be together. If there were none, everybody would just be individual isolated units. Saying this, I see no reason why we have to be home with the family every Christmas, especially the whole time. Two days ok, two and a half max but then let me out of there. People who say such crap, „there’s no place like home for Xmas” don’t actually live at “Home” throughout the year. Ahh, the luxury of nostalgia. They miss their mom because they don’t see her every day; she’s not nagging them to come for dinner every Sunday. One person’s relaxation is another’s boredom.

So I left Olsztyn (NO-Town) and all of its crappy roads for a couple days to visit Kraków, Poland’s previous capital. Sorry, I can’t say the first capital because that distinction belongs to Gniezno. I’m tired of reading how Crakovians are still upset that their city is no longer the capital. Get over it you whiny losers! Warsaw became the capital 418 years ago!

I had already visited Warsaw and Toruń numerous times and the inhabitants of Gdańsk look like a bunch of douchebags. I’m sure the people from Warsaw and Kraków are douchey as well but they wear their big-city persona better than Gdańsk-dicks. These people bought their persona second-hand but pretend badly to have inherited it. However, the Olsztynians who play “big-city people” just look douchey. Maybe on a good day pretentious.

Anyway, let’s get to the reason why I chose to visit Kraków. Art. Specifically paintings. I don’t consider myself an expert on art. Not even an art lover. However I love going to Poland’s National Museums, which for the ignorant are art museums, to look at paintings from the late 19th-early 20th century period. Such masters as Brandt, Pruszkowski, Gieraymski, Wsypiański, Malczewski, Matejko and Chełmoński.

The last, Józef Chełmoński, a representative of the Realism movement in Polish art, is not my favourite painter but I give that distinction to his painting “Czwórka”(four-in-hand) from 1881. It depicts a Ukrainian peasant on a cart driving four horses that appear to be galloping right towards the viewer. The driver is yelling and his companion seems to be either smoking a pipe or blowing a horn.

The painting hangs in the National Museum on the first floor/second floor (US) of the the Sukiennice in Kraków/Cracaow’s Old Town. If you have ever seen a picture of the Old Town square, the long building in the middle is the Sukiennice (Cloth Hall). I first saw “Czwórka” in 1997 and since then whenever I was in Kraków, the museum was closed because either it was Monday (Tip for future visitors to Poland; never go sightseeing on Mondays when all museums and historic buildings are closed) or for several years it was under renovations. So I had to wait fifteen years to see this painting, and it was still beautiful.

A quick tangent, for the non-Europeans if you’re given the opportunity to visit one European city, then make it Kraków. I love Berlin and would like to visit Paris someday but for the feel of Old Europe Kraków is the best choice.

The museum entrance is located in the middle part of the building. To experience the full effect of Chełmoński’s “Czwórka”, walk into the centre hall with works by Piotr Michałowski , military paintings and portraits from the 18th century, and when you are in the middle of the hall, turn 90 º to the left and look. Behind you is the the Hółd Hall, after Jan Matejko’s “Hołd Pruski” with many of his pieces as well as other historical paintings. There are some magnificent paintings in this room particularly Matejko’s aforementioned “Hołd Pruski” and his “Kościuszko pod Racławicami” but for the time being skip it. Return your full attention to other room and on the far wall at the end of the hall around 20 meteres away you will see “Czwórka” as it gallops into the hall. Before there were 3D movies, there was this painting.

If you are careful to avoid looking at all the other paintings by staring at the floor, the sensation of seeing “Czwórka” can be greater. However, that feeling used to even more so. As I had described, the painting hangs on a wall 20 metres away, but before the museum got renovated a wall had stood half way down the hall and “Czwórka” was on this. The painting covered the whole wall, and when you looked in the room, you didn’t see anything else except for four horses about to trample you. You would almost have the urge to jump out of the way. Just awesome.

Every person has a work of art which describes “them” and for me it’s “Czwórka”. As I’ve mentioned, I’m not an expert and I don’t have an “expert opinion” of what this painting means but for me this portrays how life should be done. Galloping full speed. Bellowing at the top of our lungs. Riding with you a bugler to announce your arrival. The feeling of abandoned wild passion mixed with joy.

In conclusion, a complaint. Why do people photograph themselves or family members in front of great pieces of art? Do you think you’re improving it with your ugly ass or stupid kid? Maybe it serves as proof that somebody was actually there. Quite often losers’ friends or family are equally stupid and refuse to believe that their dumbass acquaintances were actually in the Sistine Chapel. In reply, “Yeah I was. Here’s a selfie with Michangelo’s mural in the background.” “Well, in that case, pretty cool. And your red splotchy puffy face really the complements the colours in the painting.

(łw)

 

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