Image: Eryk Lipiński Museum of Caricature, Warsaw
Warsaw’s Eryk Lipiński Museum of Caricature is showing 'The Best of Muzeum Karykatury' through August 16, presenting a broad selection of about 500 works from its collection. The exhibition brings together caricatures, satirical illustrations and posters described by the museum as humorous, sharp and engaging, with material drawn from its archive of more than 25,000 objects.
The show is installed at the museum’s Kozia 11 address in Warsaw and is organized by Muzeum Karykatury with the city of Warsaw. According to the institution’s exhibition page, it opened on April 24, 2026, following a vernissage on April 23. The museum says the display was conceived as an opening of its archive to a wider public, using humor and comic judgment rather than a strictly academic art-historical framework.
Among the names represented are Jan Matejko, Ha-Ga, Bohdan Butenko, Stanisław Tym, Sławomir Mrożek, Andrzej Dudziński, Edward Dwurnik, Henryk Tomaszewski, Andrzej Mleczko, Franciszek Starowieyski, Jan Lenica, Zbigniew Lengren, Eryk Lipiński and many others. The museum says the selection includes both iconic drawings by major satirists and lesser-known works from its holdings.
The curatorial text frames the exhibition as a survey of how Polish humor in drawing has changed over time. It places the collection between high culture and more popular forms of communication, noting the role of political, social and artistic engagement in satirical art. The museum also links the exhibition to current visual culture, describing it as a reflection on the medium of jokes in relation to both the press tradition and contemporary memes and short-form online content.
The exhibition also looks back to a precedent from the museum’s history. Its text says the concept explicitly refers to 'Najlepsze prace ze zbiorów Muzeum Karykatury', an exhibition prepared by Eryk Lipiński in 1983 for the opening of the institution’s current home at Kozia 11. The museum says the present display, like Lipiński’s earlier one, is built from material selected from its own collection.
Public programming for the closing days is scheduled for August 16. The museum lists 'Tworzymy karykatury' family workshops from 10:00 to 12:00, aimed at parents or guardians with children aged 6 and up, and a final curatorial tour from 13:00 to 14:30 led by Michał Rzecznik. The museum also says it will be open on August 15, which is marked in Poland as the Feast of the Assumption of Mary and Armed Forces Day.
'The Best of Muzeum Karykatury' is one of the museum’s current exhibitions alongside 'Dobre kreski: Max Skorwider' in Lengrenówka, the museum’s separate workspace at Brzozowa 6/8a in Warsaw. The main exhibition remains on view until August 16, 2026.
