Muzeum Karykatury, Warszawa

Muzeum Karykatury is a Warsaw museum devoted to satirical drawings, paintings, and photographs from Poland and abroad. It occupies a former orangery from the eighteenth-century Prymas Castle and holds beyond twenty-five thousand works spanning historic and contemporary caricature. Its changing exhibitions draw on a collection shaped by Eryk Lipiński.

At Kozia Street eleven, Muzeum Karykatury gathers and presents satirical drawings, paintings, and photographs from Poland and abroad. The museum occupies a former orangery from the eighteenth-century Prymas Castle. Eryk Lipiński, a journalist, graphic artist, and stage designer, created the institution in nineteen seventy-eight and became its inaugural director.

He remained in charge until his death in nineteen ninety-one. Its collection began with Lipiński’s own holdings, enlarged through gifts and works he bought using personal funds and money raised among friends. The museum moved into this building in nineteen eighty-three, after Lipiński and his colleagues fought to secure the premises and finance its restoration.

That year, the opening display here presented outstanding works from the collection. The holdings now reach beyond twenty-five thousand works, ranging from eighteenth-century caricatures to contemporary satire. With limited gallery room, the museum changes its displays rather than keeping a fixed selection permanently installed.

Among the artists represented are William Hogarth, Honoré Daumier, Maja Berezowska, and Lipiński himself. Its archive welcomes anyone pursuing the history of caricature.