Muzeum im. Bolesława Biegasa

What to expect

The museum has moved to ul. Lwowska 6/13, in the Śródmieście Południowe quarter. Take the elevator to the fourth floor and you will find the world’s largest permanent exhibition of Boleslaw Biegas’s work - over 200 paintings and sculptures.

Who was Biegas? A boy from a Mazovian village who herded cattle from the age of seven. Orphan. Apprenticed to a carpenter, then studied woodcarving in Warsaw. In 1901 he was expelled from Krakow’s Academy of Fine Arts for his radical sculpture “The Book of Life” - the same year his work was accepted at the Vienna Secession exhibition. He left for Paris and never came back. Critic Andre Salmon wrote that he “surpassed all sculptors of his time.”

The museum displays his major painting cycles: “War Vampires” - fantastic creatures symbolising the cruelty of World War I. “Spherism” - his signature style where faces interpenetrate with grids of lines and arcs (the press coined the term specifically for him - one of very few Polish artists to have an art movement named after their work). “Mysticism of Infinity” - metaphysical works. Sculptures from his entire career: chimeras, mythical creatures, female figures symbolising “a violent battle of the sexes.”

Biegas has two museums on two continents - the other sits inside the Polish Library on Ile Saint-Louis in Paris. His sculpture “La nostalgia del povero” is in the Musee d’Orsay collection.

Do not skip the basement - it is easy to miss, but it holds additional exhibition space.

Tips

• Tuesday-Friday 12:00-18:00. Monday closed. Also open on the first Saturday of the month 10:00-14:00 (except holidays and long weekends).
• Ticket 20 zł, reduced 10 zł. Children under 16 enter free.
• Run by a private foundation (Biegas Foundation in Poland), not a public institution. Call ahead to confirm: +48 697 876 780 or +48 511 201 779.
• Accessibility: the exhibition is on the fourth floor, reached by elevator. The operator does not confirm step-free access at the street entrance, so wheelchair and stroller access are marked unconfirmed; the elevator is marked available.

Getting there

Metro: Politechnika (M1) - a few minutes’ walk.

Tram and bus: stops at pl. Politechniki and along ul. Marszałkowska, a few minutes on foot.

Nearby museums

Nearby: Fotoplastikon Warszawski (Al. Jerozolimskie 51, about 900 m - stereoscopic photographs, operating since 1905) and National Museum (Al. Jerozolimskie 3 - Poland’s largest art museum).