“Into the Sea... Gdynia 1926–2026”. Graphics from the Special Collections of the University of Gdańsk Library
On the occasion of the centenary of Gdynia, the University of Gdańsk Library is opening its archives, presenting a unique selection of graphics on the theme of Gdynia and maritime life. The exhibition “Into the Sea...” is an artistic chronicle of a city that has transformed itself from a bold vision into a symbol of modernity and freedom.
The presented works feature recurring motifs of the port and shipyards, dry docks, and fishing boats at the quays. Alongside the modernist order of the city, there are more intimate views – details, moods, fragments of everyday life. Among the figures presented, we find faces important to the history of the region, such as Antoni Abraham as interpreted by Ryszard Stryjec, but also visions focused exclusively on the rhythm of the waves, the construction of a ship, or the structure of the port space. Here, realism meets interpretation. In the works of artists such as Stanisław Rolicz, Jerzy Ostrogórski, Janusz Karwacki, Irena Kuran-Bogucka, and Marian Malina, Gdynia becomes both a concrete landscape and a sign – a mental shortcut, a construction of lines and light. For Rolicz, the port infrastructure is not a backdrop, but the main character. In his depictions of shipyards or port mornings, the city appears as a precisely organized organism, attuned to the rhythm of industrial toil.
Alongside this perspective, there is a more focused, almost private Gdynia. Jan Góra's etching dedicated to Kamienna Góra does not document the place, but builds its atmosphere – silence, distance, a view from above of the orderly fabric of the city. The expression and drama of the elements can be found in the compositions of Henryk Płóciennik, where “Połów” (The Catch) takes on an almost archetypal dimension of man's struggle with nature. A different, more lyrical sensitivity is brought by Maria Wąsowska, whose colorful graphics introduce a tone of poetic reflection into the narrative.
The exhibition does not attempt to define Gdynia in a single definition. It shows it as it was and is: a port city, raw, lyrical, modern, sometimes nostalgic. Each graphic work is a separate perspective – sometimes a document, sometimes a memory or a dream.
The prints presented from the Special Collections of the University of Gdańsk Library are rarely seen by the public. They have one thing in common: admiration for a city that always faces the sea. Because Gdynia is not just a place on the map - it is movement and direction. A constant “into the sea.”
The exhibition can be viewed in the Library Gallery (ground floor) until 9th of April and room 1.21 (first floor) until 7th of May.
text and selection of artworks: dr Katarzyna Wawrzynkowska, exhibition curator
graphic design and translation: Dominika Skutnik
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