Built around 1890 by Józef Kaspruś-Stoch, the villa Atma is a typical example of a highland pension in the Zakopane style. Karol Szymanowski lived here between 1930 and 1935. In the years 1975–1976 the building was renovated and adapted for museum purposes.
The villa houses the only Polish museum of the life and work of Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937), the greatest Polish composer after Frederic Chopin. Szymanowski gladly stayed in Zakopane ever since he was a young man. Towards the end of his life he settled there for good taking up residence in the Atma.
In 1967, Jerzy Waldorff, a well-known writer and music critic, founded a social committee that aimed to buy and renovate the Atma. The fruit of its efforts was an exhibition that opened on the ground floor of the villa (1976) to explore the composer’s ties with the Tatras and Zakopane as well as his friendships with art celebrities of the antebellum: Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Kornel Makuszyński, Serge Lifar and others.
A majority of the items on view were gifts from the artist’s niece Krystyna Dąbrowska.
THE LIFE AND WORK OF KAROL SZYMANOWSKI
The installation brings together personal memorabilia of Karol Szymanowski. The highland-style showcases contain Polish and foreign orders and distinction, autographs, letters and a concert tailcoat.
The only room that looks the same way it did when the composer was alive is his studio, which has been reconstructed basing on old photographs and using a range of original furnishings. There is the furniture that once was the composer’s property (among them armchairs made at the Ład Interior Design Cooperative), as well as his typewriter, photographs and personal effects. The piano, which he often played, belonged to Mr & Mrs Sokołowski.
The Szymanowskis and their friends are portrayed in photographs and paintings. Among the showpieces is Aniela Pawlikowska nee Wolska’s linocut Blessed Mother of the Herbs, and Maja Berezowska’s watercolour Nuns.
Also at the Atma visitors can see a range of portraits of the composer. They include photographs from various period in the artist’s life, a portrait by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1931), a drawing by Janina Konarska, a gypsum bust by Stanisław Horno-Popławski and death mask of Karol Szymanowski taken by the Swiss sculptor Delerse.
Harnasie and the Parisian premiere of this ballet are recalled in the designs of costumes for Harnaś and the Girl, the main characters, painted by Irena Lorentowicz, who designed the set. There is also a portrait of the director of the world premiere of the ballet, Serge Lifar, executed by Maja Berezowska. The photograph displayed in the studio shows Irena Warden-Cittadini to whom Harnasie was dedicated, and who donated the manuscript of the ballet to the National Museum in Cracow.
The Atma also stores the book collection that belonged to the composer. Alongside sheet music, the library contains books on music, some with Szymanowski’s hand-written notes. A lot of the books were gifts to the composer from the authors he was friends with, who often added their dedications and autographs, which explains the considerable historical value of the collection.
Museum tours are accompanied by pieces of Szymanowski’s music from a rich sound library.
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