Warsaw, Poland, January 2026, The Stefan Gierowski Foundation announced its support for an author talk with Dr. Marek Bartelik at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, taking place on Tuesday, January 13, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. in the Museum auditorium.
The event is part of the museum’s “Book in the Museum” program and centers on Bartelik’s new publication, “Unguiding a Tour” (Polish title: “Nieoprowadzanie po wystawie”), released to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Stefan Gierowski (1925 to 2022), one of the leading figures in postwar Polish art. The conversation will be moderated by Dr. Agnieszka Morawińska.
The Stefan Gierowski Foundation’s support is provided to advance the cultural and educational purpose of the event and the related publication. This support is not an investment and does not involve any ownership interest or financial stake in the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the program, or any commercial activity.
Bartelik’s book accompanies the anniversary exhibition, “Painting Is Joy, Even Priming the Canvas Is a Great Celebration,” and expands on themes raised during his guided walk-through of the exhibition. The text develops the exhibition’s narrative through an essay that examines six decades of Gierowski’s work and his sustained exploration of the relationship between light, color, and space.
Rather than following a strict chronology, the book moves through Gierowski’s paintings through associations, digressions, and personal reflections, including Bartelik’s travel memories. The publication combines an essay with extensive visual material, including reproductions of selected works, documentation from the exhibition tour, and photographs from the author’s archive. The book is bilingual, with Polish and English text.
About the participants
Dr. Marek Bartelik is an art historian, critic, curator, and poet based in New York. He has taught at institutions including The Cooper Union, and served as a visiting professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts, MIT, and Yale University. He has authored numerous books and has written for publications that include Artforum International, Art in America, ArtNews, The Brooklyn Rail, Gazeta Wyborcza, and SZUM. Bartelik has also curated museum exhibitions devoted to artists including Mark Rothko, Adja Yunkers, and Anna Bella Geiger, and has served in leadership roles for the International Association of Art Critics in the United States and internationally.
Dr. Agnieszka Morawińska is an art historian and critic who has held senior cultural leadership roles in Poland, including Director of the National Museum in Warsaw and Director of the Zachęta National Gallery of Art. She has also served as Deputy Minister of Culture and Art and as Poland’s Ambassador to Australia. She is a graduate of the University of Warsaw and is known for her curatorial work, lectures, and publications.
Event details
Title: Book in the Museum, Author Talk with Dr. Marek Bartelik, “Unguiding a Tour”
Date: Tuesday, January 13, 2026
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Venue: Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Auditorium
Host organizations: Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and the Stefan Gierowski Foundation
Book details
Title: Nieoprowadzanie po wystawie / Unguiding a Tour
Text: Marek Bartelik
Translation: Anna Moroz
Publisher: Stefan Gierowski Foundation
Publication year: 2025
ISBN: 978-83-961474-9-3
About the Gierowski Foundation
The Gierowski Foundation is the private philanthropic organisation of Józef Hubert Gierowski, a Polish businessman, philanthropist, and art collector. The Foundation supports projects in the arts, with a focus on advancing cultural work connected to Poland and to the legacy of Stefan Gierowski, one of the leading abstract painters of postwar Europe. Józef Hubert Gierowski comes from an artistic and academic family, he is the son of Stefan Gierowski, longtime professor at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, and the nephew of Professor Józef Andrzej Gierowski, the historian who served as rector of Jagiellonian University from 1981 to 1987. Trained in architecture at Warsaw University of Technology, he spent 15 years abroad in the United States, France, Latin America, and Japan, where he was active in the art trade before returning to Poland. In the 1990s, he became known as one of the largest individual investors on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, later playing a significant role as the largest shareholder of Animex ahead of its strategic investment and eventual sale to Smithfield Foods, and he has also been active in real estate, including the acquisition of Warsaw’s historic Blue Palace (Pałac Błękitny) in 2000.