The In Memoriam Halina Nałęcz, 1917 Vilnius-2008 London exhibition at the Warsaw National Museum features works donated by painter and collector Halina Nałęcz (1917-2008).

Nałęcz moved to England after World War II and opened her own gallery, Drian Galleries, at Porchester Place, London, in 1957. Drian refers to Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), a leading Dutch abstract painter. Nałęcz was a keen promoter of the latest trends in modern art. She was an avid collector, traveled widely and had a lot of artistic contacts, all of which lent an international character to her exhibitions. The gallery used to host exhibitions of artists of the caliber of Victor Vaserely, Joseph Lacasse and Cecil Stephenson as well as highly recognized expatriate Polish artists like Henryk Berlewi, Tadeusz Ilnicki, Feliks Topolski, Lutka Pink, Piotr Potworowski, Franciszka and Stefan Themerson and Marek Żuławski.

Nałęcz continued her pre-war painting career as well. She studied at the Faculty of Art at the University of Vilnius (then in Poland) under Michał Rouba. After the war, she studied at Marian Szyszko-Bohusz's school of painting in London and at Jean-Henri Closon's studio in Paris. Nałęcz, who painted under the name Halima, created strikingly original works in which plants and animals inhabit vivid, fairy-tale realms.

Nałęcz donated 112 pictures, 63 sculptures and a number of works on paper to bolster the museum's collection with works by contemporary foreign artists, especially British artists and Polish artists resident in Britain.

M.R.

National Museum, 3 Jerozolimskie Ave., tel. 0-22 629-30-93, www.mnw.art.pl, until March 31