On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Gdynia, the University of Gdańsk Library is opening its archives, presenting a unique selection of prints on the theme of Gdynia and the sea. The exhibition ‘To the sea...’ is an artistic chronicle of a city that has been transformed from a bold vision into a symbol of modernity and freedom.

The presented works feature recurring motifs of the port and shipyard, dry docks, and fishing boats at the quays. Alongside the modernist order of the city, there are more intimate views - details, moods, fragments of everyday life. Among the figures presented, we find faces important to the history of the region, such as Antoni Abraham as interpreted by Ryszard Stryjec, but also visions focused exclusively on the rhythm of the waves, the construction of a ship or the structure of the port space.

Here, realism meets the artists' interpretation. In the works of artists such as Stanisław Rolicz, Jerzy Ostrogórski, Janusz Karwacki, Irena Kuran-Bogucka and Marian Malina, Gdynia becomes both a concrete landscape and a sign - a mental shortcut, a construction of lines and light. For Rolicz, the port infrastructure is not a backdrop, but the main character. In his depictions of STOCZNIE or port mornings, the city appears as a precisely organised organism, subordinated to the rhythm of work.

Alongside this perspective, there is a more focused, almost private Gdynia. Jan Góra's etching dedicated to Kamienna Góra does not document the place, but builds its atmosphere - silence, distance, a view from above of the orderly fabric of the city. The expression and drama of the elements can be found in the compositions of Henryk Płóciennik, among which ‘Połów’ (The Catch) takes on an almost archetypal dimension of man's struggle with nature. A different, more lyrical sensibility is brought by Maria Wąsowska, whose colourful graphics introduce a tone of poetic reflection to the narrative.

The exhibition does not attempt to encapsulate Gdynia in a single definition. It shows it as it was and is: a port city, austere, lyrical, modern, sometimes nostalgic. Each graphic work is a separate perspective - sometimes a document, sometimes a memory or a dream.

The prints presented from the Special Collections of the University of Gdańsk UG Library are rarely seen in public. They have one thing in common: admiration for a city that always faces the sea.

Because Gdynia is not just a place on the map - it is movement and direction. A constant ‘into the sea’.

The exhibition can be viewed in the University of Gdańsk UG Library Gallery (ground floor) and room 1.21 (first floor) from 25 February to the end of March this year.

Selection of works: dr Katarzyna Wawrzynkowska

Exhibition curator: dr Katarzyna Wawrzynkowska

Graphic design: Dominika Skutnik