Gombrowicz Museum

The museum of the Polish novelist and playwriter Witold Gombrowicz enables the locals and tourists of Vence to learn about the Polish author and his most famous works.

Thanks to the museum, the beautiful Villa Alexandrine has become a tourist attraction and is thus part of France’s cultural map.

Work on the museum was put in place in Warsaw by Minister of Culture and National Heritage Jarosław Sellin together with Loic Dombreval, Mayor of Vence.

The assignment was performed by the Society of Friends of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, the National Institute for Museums and Public Collections and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

Witold Gombrowicz has been translated into many languages and is internationally valued

Witold Gombrowicz has been described as the author of the ultimate author and his work connects him with the philosophers Roland Barthes and Jean-Paul Sartre.

His writing is both fantastic and absurd with strong ties to existentialism, structuralism and satire. He has been praised, among others, by Milan Kundera and by one of the great novelists of the 20th century, John Updike. He was an anti-nationalist with deep psychological insight and attacks our ideas of culture, form, true authenticity and literature in itself.

In 2004, his native Poland celebrated his life and work by declaring it the year of Gombrowicz, yet he is still largely unknown in the West.

Witold Gombrowicz spent the last years of his life in Vence and died in 1969, at the age of 65.

His works are still translated into over 30 languages and the best works include: Diaries, Ferdydurke, Pornography, Cosmos and Yvona, Princess of Burgundia. Many of his works were not fully appreciated until after his death. A familiar lot for many artists!

By Tommy Sverre / 2021