page_title: Zachęta
section_title: Permanent Collection
hierarchical_section_title: Zachęta / Permanent Collection
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: The collection began with a picture of Józef Simmler's Death of Barbara Radziwiłł. Objects have come mainly from donations and wills. At the end of the 19th century, the collection already comprised over one thousand items.
  The permanent collection of Zachęta National Gallery of Art today comprises 3600 objects of which about 700 are paintings, almost 80 are video works and around 100 are sculptures and installations. In addition, the gallery owns an extensive collection of over 2600 works on paper such as graphic works, drawings and photographs. Polish artists from the 20th century, like Tadeusz Kantor, Henryk Stażewski and Alina Szapocznikow, are represented within the collection as well as Polish contemporary artists such as Mirosław Bałka, Katarzyna Kozyra, Zbigniew Libera, Wilhelm Sasnal and Krzysztof Wodiczko.
  The works of the collection not only reflect the often complicated past of the institution, but also show the focus of the gallery. Today, it concentrates on works of contemporary Polish artists, both works that have been shown in the gallery and works which were produced in cooperation with the gallery. Some of these projects are exhibited in other locations, such as the Polish Pavilion at the Biennale in Venice. There is no permanent exhibition of the collection. The works either become integrated in temporary shows or are on loan for exhibitions in other Polish institutions or abroad.
  Decisions about changes to the collection are made by the Commission for Purchases, Donations and Deposits, formed in 1990. Since 2008, the Department of Collections and Inventories is responsible for taking care of Zachęta's collection.
caption: Death of Barbara Radziwiłł. a painting by Józef Simmler.
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