Its main goal was to reaffirm the importance and unique character of Polish contemporary art at a time, when Poland could not exist as sovereign nation.

[2] It was held by Polish modernist painters,[2] and called A Separate Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture (Wystawa osobna obrazów i rzeźb).

[4] Among its founding members were a generation of academics from the School of Fine Arts who also participated in the show, including future Rectors of the academy: Leon Wyczółkowski, Teodor Axentowicz, Jacek Malczewski, Józef Mehoffer; as well as artists Józef Chełmoński, Julian Fałat, Antoni Piotrowski, Jan Stanisławski, Włodzimierz Tetmajer and Stanisław Wyspiański.

[2] Sztuka's artistic philosophy was by no means homogeneous – encompassing all facets of the Young Poland movement including neo-romanticism, symbolism, Impressionism and Art Nouveau.

It was "a happy hour" for Polish modernists, wrote historian Maria Poprzecka, because the prevailing trends in European art of the time (Edvard Munch, August Strindberg) were perfectly aligned with extreme pessimism of the Poles under the foreign rule.