Collection of modern art at the State Museum at Majdanek includes works by Polish and foreign artists, such as paintings, graphics, sketches, sculptures, medals, photographs, art posters. The majority of them is devoted to martyrgom and anti-war themes. The collection is a result of many competitions and art exhibitions organized by the Museum, which were firstly entitled "Against War," then "International Triennal of Art at Majdanek."

In the competition participated also Barbara Sosnowska-Bałdyga and Stanisław Bałdyga - a marriage of artisits from Lublin. The work by Stanisław Bałdyga in the zincography technique is an opening for a publication called "Majdanek in ex libris and poetry" of 1984. The work includes ten ex libris and ten poems, which, although written independently from each other, create a coherent whole. Ex libris by Stanisław Bałdyga presents a view at guard towers, seen from the two rows of a fence surrounding the prisoner field. There is a visibly fairer area in the middle of the composition, in the shape of a reversed triangle, which is a reference to the system of marking the prisoners used in German concentration camps.

Other three graphics of Stanisław Bałdyga, made in the technique of linocut, present the images of camp buildings.

Majdanek I, 1972.

In the foreground there are seven prisoners hanged on the gallows. The light sharply shapes their bodies in the darkness, just as they were illuminated by a large headlight. Impenetrable darkness dominates the space above the figures. In the top part of the graphic the author presented a characteristic barbed-wire fence and gallows.

Majdanek II, 1972.

In the middle part of the second graphic there is a man lying on the ground. He is weak and skinny, his protruding hip bones are clearly visible. The man is lying in the bright spotlight, but is surrounded by the darkness. On the top edge of the work we can see an image of the camp fence and the outline of the guard tower once again.

Majdanek III, 1972.

The last graphic shows a figural scene: three people standing in the row, holding their hands up. Just like in his other works, the artist used a sharp chiaroscuro, which intensifies the dramatic feeling. In the far background there is a crematorium which gives us a clear image of the future of those three people in the picture - we see them a few moments before the execution.

Stanisław Bałdyga

was born in 1945 in Lublin and attended Cyprian Kamil Norwid’s School of Fine Arts there. He studied in The Department of Fine Arts, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. In 1970 he got a diploma in the field of graphics at the atelier of prof. Edmund Piotrowicz. He came back to his hometown where he lives and creates his works. He is a member of the Association of Polish Graphic Artists. He has more than 50 individual exhibitions to his credit and also took part in more than 300 group exhibitions in Poland and abroad. Bałdyga was a member of The Organizing Committee of the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th International Art Triennial organized by The State Museum at Majdanek and during the last three editions of the Triennial (1997, 2000 and 2004) he was a jury member. In cooperation with Grzegorz Mazurek he elaborated and implemented the projects of the exposition Triennial Majdanek '94 and Majdanek '97.

The artist's wife Barbara Sosnowska-Bałdyga also devoted her professional life to graphics. She graduated Graphics in 1970 in The Department of Fine Arts at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, in the graphics arts atelier of prof. Ryszard Krzywka. She creates graphics, basing on her individual, mastered through the years technique, which fuses traditional attidude with modern possibilities of computer technology. Barbara Sosnowska-Bałdyga also made her contribution to the Triennial - she designed a poster for the 5th Triennial Majdanek '97 and cooperated by preparing catalogues for the last editions of Triennial - in 2000 and 2004.