Lem’s Bestiary Illustrated by Mróz questions of such philosophical importance as the ethical considerations
the Year of Lem. Remaining an immensely popular author among his countrymen, Stanisław Lem is also one of the best-known Polish writers in the world, translated into languages and published in millions of copies. The choice
Lem has been most successful, the one he gracefully employed, ennobled and elevated to its literary heights, is condition of the human as a biological and thinking entity, inanimate beings. Stanisław Lem’s work evolved over time. It began with cosmic adventure novels, but written in accordance with the requirements of social realism. artists to produce social realistic art, Lem published further novels and collections of stories, which helped him secure a place among the classics of the genre. At this time he has written Opowieści o pilocie Pirxie (Tales of Pirx the Pilot) and Solaris – a novel about a thinking ocean, popularly regarded as Lem’s greatest work – and one which made him a world-famous writer. Later came Bajki robotów (Mortal Engines) and Cyberiada (The Cyberiad) – collections of short, grotesque parables, the most popular of which became the stories seemingly light, fairy-tale-like form, the stories raise deep philosophical questions, their archaized language working to enthrall the reader even more. The work of Stanisław Lem is now a global phenomenon, and its
generated by the achievements of contemporary medicine (is a man whose most organs have been transplanted still the same person?). In his novels, which retain their vast popularity to this day, Lem was able to incorporate a whole arsenal of issues arising from the clash of the humanities and medicine with engineering and futurology. The Kraków artist Daniel Mróz gave the perfect graphic form to the heroes of Lem’s works. For a great number of the literary fans of the writer, Mróz’s illustrations and Lem’s texts have become an inseparable whole. Daniel Mróz, while still a student, joined the Kraków cultural and social weekly magazine “Przekrój”. At that time, it was the most opinion-forming magazine in Poland. also the less serious, fashion- or lifestyle-related content, as well as smuggling news from the West. Daniel Mróz gave “Przekrój” its recognizable graphic shape. Apart from the superb technical quality, his works were characterized by ambiguity, unrestrained imagination and a great dose of grotesque and absurd humor. Despite these comments, Mróz’s illustrations are not subservient to Lem’s prose – they build a world that is compatible with Lem’s but at the same time create a world of their own. For the sake of accuracy, let us add that Mróz illustrated relatively few of Lem’s books: The Book of Robots, The Cyberiad and Mortal Engines, designed ten covers and illustrated several stories printed in magazines. And that was enough for Mróz’s work to become embedded in the delighted readers’ memory for years to come. The exhibition entitled Lem’s Bestiary According to Mróz presents the results of the collaboration of these two great artists. Its underlying thought, whose author is the professor of the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts, Janusz Górski, is a reference to medieval albums showing to the astounded audience beasts the two-headed inhabitants of the Antipodes. In our bestiary we present emancipated machines, somewhat ominous, and simultaneously grotesque, carefully drawn by Master Mróz and combined with their descriptions found in the novels and short stories of Master Lem.
More important works by Stanisław Lem