Warsaw's quirky Museum of Caricature will hold an exhibition entitled Chopin's Smile in June to coincide with the bicentenary of composer Frederic Chopin.

The exhibition will consist of 268 drawings by 186 artists from 33 countries that were entered for an international competition. Winners will be announced in a ceremony June 14. They will be awarded prizes ranging from zl.6,000 to a grand prize of zl.15,000.

The museum is staging a separate exhibition from March 19, displaying the work of Polish-American cartoonist Krzysztof Zacharow and Austrian satirist Gerhard Gepp. Zacharow is known for provocative political symbolism and his work has appeared on the covers of major international magazines including Newsweek. Gepp is known best for his work for The New York Times.

"Caricatures have always been popular in Poland," says Wojciech Chmurzyński (pictured left), the museum's director. "In the 18th century it was a special form of drawing; it's embedded in our history of art. We have 30,000 original exhibits in our archives and organize periodical exhibitions, nothing permanent."

The Museum of Caricature is located at 11 Kozia Street, in Warsaw's Old Town district. Established in 1978, the museum hosts exhibitions by cartoonists from all over the world and is funded by City Hall.
Alex de Moller