The event coincides with an ongoing exhibition of Wyspiański portraits at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
The speakers at the panel include Alison Smith, the exhibition’s co-curator, as well as experts on Polish art, Roisin Inglesby and Julia Griffin, who curated a recent exhibition on the Young Poland movement at London’s William Morris Gallery.
The discussion will be moderated by Olga Topol, curator at the British Library’s Slavonic and East European Collections.
Born in 1869, Wyspiański was one of the key figures of Young Poland, a modernist movement that emerged in response to the partitions of Poland between Russia, Austria and Prussia, resulting in the country disappearing from the map of Europe for 123 years.
For Young Poland artists, culture became a means to preserve an endangered national identity.
Wyspiański’s dramas, such as The Wedding and November Night, laid the foundations for modern Polish theatre. He died in 1907.
Stanisław Wyspiański, Self-Portrait, 1894, National Museum in Warsaw. Image: Public domain/CC0
The British Library describes Wypiański on its website as "a true polymath … an artist, designer, interior decorator, craftsman, and national bard who worked across many disciplines [and] played a key role in shaping Polish visual arts during a critical period in the country’s history."
It adds that Thursday's panel "will explore Wyspiański’s extraordinary life and achievements, while revealing unexpected parallels with [design reformer] William Morris – particularly in their shared ideal of the Book Beautiful and in their belief in the unification of art, craft, and social purpose."
The Wyspiański exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery runs until July 13.
(mk/gs)