page_title: Zachęta
section_title: The Building
hierarchical_section_title: Zachęta / History / The Building
caption_attribution_description: This file was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by participants of Zachęta do Wikipedii, a GLAM-Wiki event organised at Zachęta - National Gallery of Art as part of a partnership project with Wikimedia Polska. Polski&#160;| English&#160;| +/−
context_page_description: The Zachęta National Gallery of Art is a contemporary-art museum in the center of Warsaw, Poland. The Gallery's chief purpose is to present and support Polish contemporary art and artists. With numerous temporary exhibitions of well-known foreign artists, the gallery has also established itself internationally.
  The word "zachęta" means encouragement. The Zachęta Gallery takes its name from Towarzystwo Zachęty do Sztuk Pięknych, founded in Warsaw in 1860.
context_section_description: First tenders for the design of a new building were put out in 1862. However, due to a lack of financial resources the plans were not realized. After the Society was given land by the municipality, another competition was announced in 1894, won by the Warsaw architect, Stefan Szyller. He presented an architectural design in neo-Renaissance style with classical elements. The portal is ornamented with allegorical figures and sculptural works by Zygmunt Otto. The architrave of the building is engraved with the Latin word Artibus.
  Construction work began in 1898. In December 1900, the front building was officially opened followed by the opening of the south wing in 1903. Both the opening and extension of the building were exceptionally well reviewed. Szyller's plans originally included the construction of two more wings which could not be implemented at that time.
  In 1958, the Ministry of Art and Culture decided to reconstruct the building. Surrounding houses had been destroyed during the war and thus, involuntarily, gave way to the extension of the building. The Warsaw architects, Oskar Hansen, Lech Tomaszewski and Stanisław Zamecznikow, were entrusted with the reconstruction, but the planned reconstruction was postponed.
  In 1982, the reconstruction plans were taken up again and executed by the Shop for Preservation of Monuments. From 1991 to 1993, the reconstruction was supervised and executed by the company, Dom i Miasto (Home and City). The company was also responsible for the extension of the staircases inside the building, which allowed for direct access to the exhibition halls within the new part of the building. The resulting monumental perspective is emphasized by the Gladiator, a work by the Polish sculptor, Pius Weloński, which remained from the Society's former collection.
  The extension of the building created a larger exhibition space, a storage facility for the artwork, an unloading platform and an office wing with a separate entrance. The largest exhibition hall was named after the Polish painter, Jan Matejko. Another room is named after Gabriel Narutowicz, the first president of the Second Polish Republic, who was assassinated at Zachęta on 16 December 1922 by Eligiusz Niewiadomski, a Polish painter and critic. To commemorate the president and Wojciech Gerson, one of the founders of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, two plaques were revealed during the gallery's anniversary celebrations in 2000.
  Since its official opening in 1900, the Zachęta building has housed several institutions:
  1900–1939:  Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts
  1939–1945:  House of German Culture
  1945–1989:  Central Bureau for Art Exhibitions
  1989–2003:  Zachęta State Gallery of Art
  since 2003: Zachęta National Gallery of Art
  The Zachęta building was registered as a historical monument in 1965.
caption: Zachęta Gallery, front view
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