Bursztynnik. Mistrz dawniej i dziś – temporary exhibition

Temporary exhibition at the Castle Museum in Malbork
From 24 April 2026 – Grand Masters’ Palace, Middle Castle

The exhibition ‘Bursztynnik. Mistrz dawniej i dziś’ is a reflection on the essence of mastery: understood both as technical perfection and the ability to creatively interpret the material. At its heart lies amber, which serves as a meeting point between nature and art, and as a reason to show the continuity and transformations in artistic craftsmanship.

The exhibition focuses on the creative process, on the relationship between the artist and the material that imposes limitations on the one hand, yet opens up scope for the imagination on the other. Amber, as a heterogeneous, fragile and unique material, demands particular sensitivity from the artist. It is precisely in this relationship that the craftsmanship of the amber craftsman, once a skilled worker, and today often also a designer and artist, is revealed.

The exhibition juxtaposes two key moments in the history of amber craftsmanship: its Golden Age, spanning the 17th and early 18th centuries, and the contemporary revival of this art form in the second half of the 20th and 21st centuries. This juxtaposition is not a chronological overview, but a dialogue – it shows how the understanding of mastery, the function of the object and amber as a material has evolved.

Works by old masters – such as Christoph Maucher, Michel Redlin and the Gdańsk workshops – represent a world in which technical perfection, richness of form and symbolism played a key role. After three years, Bogdan Mirowski’s painting ‘Biesiada’ [i.e. The Feast] returns to the exhibition. After three years, Bogdan Mirowski’s painting ‘The Feast’ returns to the exhibition. Works by contemporary artists (Aleksander Gliwiński, Maria Fijałkowska, Piotr Wajcht, Jolanta and Andrzej Kupniewski, Barbara Gronuś-Dutko) are also on display, artists who move away from mass production in favour of individual, original expressions. In their works, amber becomes not only a material but also an inspiration, a starting point for experiments with form, structure and combinations with other materials.

Another key part of the exhibition’s concept is the presentation of amber as a timeless medium. Motifs known from history – religious, mythological or symbolic – return in new interpretations, often reworked by contemporary artists in a personal and contemporary manner. In this way, the exhibition builds a bridge between the past and the present, demonstrating that tradition is not a closed chapter, but a vibrant source of inspiration.

The selection of around 100 objects from the Malbork collection (numbering nearly 2,000 works) highlights both its importance and diversity. This is merely a fraction of the larger whole, heralding a new phase of the permanent exhibition, which is set to present the phenomenon of amber in the history of European art even more fully.

The exhibition ‘Bursztynnik. Mistrz dawniej i dziś’ is not only a presentation of outstanding works, but above all a story about creativity – about the ability to perceive beauty in nature and give it a new form.