Oct. 31, Halloween, was the opening day for three art exhibitions in the spacious halls of Cracow's Art Palace.

The show Existence and to Exist was the first to open; it was earlier presented in Łódź. The exhibition was organized by the German Verein Pentaton Kulturnetz e.V. association and Bildungshaus Hägenau within the series Artistic Portrait of Baden-Württemberg.
The show features works by Adam Lüde Döring and Hans-Peter Hauf who are among the most highly valued artists of Baden-Württemberg and whose works are widely acclaimed both in Germany and abroad. Both began painting relatively late and had no close ties to art previously (Döring had been a carpenter's apprentice and a post office manager before he started his studies in philosophy and graphic art).

Hauf's large paintings seek to preserve moments which usually escape notice and take the form of colorful and haphazard drawings. Döring divides a picture's plane into geometric figures from which the shape of contemporary man emerges, continually in motion. Several works depict people practicing sports, mainly tennis (Serve 2 from 1986) and swimming.

Crowds of guests then moved to the Stanisław Wyspiański Room, located next to the main exhibition room of the Art Palace, where works by well-known Cracow artist Iwona Fischer-Zuziak are displayed. Fischer-Zuziak is a graduate of two local universities: the architecture department at the University of Technology and the Academy of Fine Arts' painting department. The newest series named Nostalgia III shows once again that the artist is under the spell of Tuscany's landscape from a bird's eye view.

The third exhibition is located in the Lower Palace. The most determined guests-the whole opening ceremony lasted about three hours-viewed the works of Beata Wąsowska, a graduate of the Katowice division of Cracow's Academyof Fine Arts. Her series named
Transformation, presented earlier at the Silesia Museum, is supplemented with earlier works that were almost unknown in Cracow. The artist explains that the title Transformation refers to a transition from portraits, mostly of joyful, sociable women, to "the reality taking place inside a human being." Two beautiful series Madonnas and Angels distinguish themselves among paintings characterized by sharp, contrasting colors.

All three exhibitions are on display at Cracow's Art Palace, 4 Szczepański Sq., through Dec. 1 throughout the week from 8:15 a.m. to 6 p.m.