Opening hours: Closed Mondays; open daily 10am-4pm.
The Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture is located in a park high atop the steep bank of the Vistula river. The Museum is housed in the classicist Krolikarnia palace, which was modelled on Palladio's Renaissance villa, "Villa Rotonda", and was built in 1782-1786 by Domenico Merlini for Karol Alexander Thomatis de Valery, the Chamberlain of King Stanislaw August Poniatowski. The name "Krolikarnia" ("the rabbit warren") reflects the fact that rabbits used to be bred here during the reigns of the Saxon kings. The palace, restored in 1959-1964, has since 1965 housed the Xawery Dunikowski Museum, which in 2001 was renamed the Museum of Sculpture.
The Museum's holdings original holdings were Xawery Dunikowski's gift to the Polish nation. Dunikowski (1875-1964) was a sculptor and painter made famous by metaphorical compositions he sculpted after 1900. His style was close to that of the Mloda Polska (The Young Poland) movement, and had some affinity with August Rodin's art, especially in such works as Maternity and his Pregnant Woman series, intentionally synthetic and compact in form. The mature Dunikowski engaged in a variety of artistic activities, producing such works as the famous Wawel Heads series and a number of sculpted portraits, architectural reliefs and monuments. Some of his monuments, most notably the Monument to the Silesian Uprisings on St. Anne's Mountain, were a natural blend of sculpture and architecture.
The Museum is proud to have Dunikowski's many sculptures, paintings, drawings and memorabilia. Other holdings include a collection of old and new sculpture from the sixteenth through the early twentieth century and a collection of modern sculpture from the early twentieth century to the present day.
Permanent exhibition: "Xawery Dunikowski's Artistic Output".
Muzeum Rzeźby im. Xawerego Dunikowskiego
Oddział Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie
ul. Puławska 113a
02-707 Warszawa
Region: mazowieckie
Phone: (+48 22) 843 15 86
Fax: (+48 22) 853 69 53
WWW: www.krolikarnia.mnw.art.pl
Email: krolikarnia@mnw.art.pl