The short story of the museum

The Museum of Cartoon Art and Caricature in Warsaw was established in 1978. The initial idea of creating such museum (one of the first of this kind in the world) came from the prominent Polish caricarturist and satirical cartoonist Eryk Lipiński, who was for many years its director. It goes back to early 60s, when Eryk started his collection of caricatures and satircal drawings. He encouraged artists and their heirs to make donations, getting funds to buy old and contemparary works, and often using his own money to acquire valuable originals. Initial attemps in the 60s to start the Museum, as part of the National Museum in Warsaw and in the mid 70s as part of the Museum of History of Warsaw, did not come to fruition. But Eryk didn't give up and continued the search for the alternative solution for his project. Eventually he found a sympathetic ear with the authorities and thanks to support of the Director of the Museum of Literature in Warsaw, Janusz Odrowąż-Pieniążek, the Museum of Caricature was born on the 15th of September 1978 as a section of the Museum of Literature.
The first five years were very challenging. The collections of drawings were getting bigger and bigger, but since the museum didn't have its own premises, exhibiting them was difficult. The first exhibitions, (the very first one being Warsaw in Caricature - from Wars and Sawa to Trasa Lazienkowska, opend on the 17 January 1979) were held in rented premises, mainly in the "Szpilki" gallery. The musem's office and the storage room (both proudly named) consisted of two small rooms in the Warexpo company in the old Jablkowski Brothers department store in Bracka street.
But Eryk perceviered in looking for a sutable place to host the museum. He discoverd an abandoned delapidated builidng, an old breakfast room (orangerie) of the Primat Palace in Kozia street. The small building just about met the basic requirements of a potential museum and it can be said, that Eryk decided to fight for it, gradually overcoming the beaurocracy and eventually completing the slow process of renovation. In the begining of 1983 the museum acquired the status of an independent body and the museum's first exhibition, The Best Works from the Collections of the Museum of Caricature, was opened on the 27th of October 1983.
By the end of 1983, the museum's modest collection constisted of 2500 pieces of works. Now the collection consists of more than 13 000. However, taking into account permanent deposits, the collection consists of 20 000 pieces. The Museum's own collection includes many rare examples of Polish and international caricature, ranging from the 18th century to today. Exhibits include works of such prominent artist as: Daniel Chodowiecki, William Hogarth, Honore Daumier, Jan Piotr Norblin, Aleksander Orłowski, Franciszek Kostrzewski, Kazimierz Sichulski, Zdzisław Czermański, Jerzy Zaruba, Kazimierz Grus, Maja Berezowska. Obviosly the best represented section is contemporary caricature with a long list such of famous names as eg: Eryk Lipiński, Julian Bohdanowicz, Andrzej Czeczot, Jerzy Flisak, Zbigniew Jujka, Szymon Kobyliński, Zbigniew Lengren, Edmund Mańczak, Juliusz Puchalski, Andrzej Stopka, Zbigniew Ziomecki, and also very popular contemporary artist such as Edward Lutczyn, Andrzej Mleczko and Henryk Sawka.