The membership of the society was tightly controlled in order to protect its identity. It was especially important considering that the Polish artists were forced to exhibit abroad under the banner of Poland's own occupiers. For example, when the 1892 Munich International Exhibition of Fine Arts chose to create a Polish department, the Tsarist official from the Russian-controlled Warsaw named it a political provocation in his official protest. As a result, at the 1900 World Exposision Poles from the Russian sector of occupied Poland were allowed to exhibit only with the Russians from Russia.