Malarstwo i rzeźba
- Lenkų kalba / Polish
- Anglų kalba / English
EN"What luck! We dreamed all our lives of a free nation and a free Wilno, we dreamed that art should flourish once again in a free Wilno. And behold, our nation is free, and Wilno is free! Following our difficult, gloomy youth, it seemed as if we had nothing to expect other than a difficult, gloomy maturity - but instead, we have lived to experience a miracle - the hour of victory! Future generations will envy us. Almost among the ruins we are planting a tree whose fruit may one day take the form of a new art." These words were spoken by Ferdynand Ruszczyc (1870-1936) on Sunday, 12 October 1919 during the inauguration of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Stefan Batory University in Wilno. His appointment as Dean of the Faculty was the crowning achievement to his efforts associated with the foundation of an institution for art education in Wilno. Ruszczyc had earlier been involved with various art circles. In the years 1892-1897 he had studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg under the landscape painters Ivan Shishkin and Arkhip Kuindzhi. From 1904 to 1907 he held the post of Professor of Painting in the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He then moved to Krakow, where for several months he directed the School of Landscape Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1908 he settled for good in Wilno. [Extract, p. 73]
