Polish Art Research Articles

Polityczność sztuki. Analiza pracy Zbigniewa Libery pt. LEGO. Obóz koncentracyjny z 1996 roku

The objective of the paper is to analyze Zbigniew Libera’s Lego. Concentration Camp from 1996, which is considered to be one of the most important Polish works of art in the 1990s. Lego exemplifies the problem of the politicality of art which consists of art’s involvement in politics. The considerations on the permeation of the fields of politics and esthetics constitute a sig- nificant part of the work of French philosopher Jacques Ranciere, whose concepts provide the theoretical foundations for the analysis of Libera’s Lego. The juxtaposition of toys with the symbol of the Holocaust raises questions about the role of art in uncovering the discourse of power as understood by Michel Foucault, the influence of public policies (cultural, educational policies and the policy towards the past) on art and the borders of commercialization and trivialization of the symbols of collective memory. Libera’s Lego is a transgressive work, representing the trend of so-called critical art in modern Polish art. The artist used artistic methods to break the cultural taboo that concerns the presentation of the non-presentable. Libera showed the past and the present, the former by re- ferring to the topic of the Holocaust, indicating the pragmatism of the Nazi system, and the lat- ter by uncovering the laws of the teaching process, carried out by means of repeating patterns. Above all, however, Libera showed that artistic activity can be a form of expressing interests and can influence the shape of public policies.

THE POET OF ART – JANUSZ WAŁEK

On the 8th of July 2018 died Janusz Wałek, art historian, museologist, pedagogue, born in 1941 in Bobowa. He graduated from the Jagiellonian University, the history of art faculty. In 1968, he started working in the Czartoryskis’ Museum – Branch of the National Museum in Krakow, where some time after he became a head of the European Painting Department for many years. He was a lecturer at the Fine Arts Academy, the National Academy of Theatre Arts and the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. He wrote two books and numerous articles about art. He was also a poet, the winner of the Main Prize in the 1997 edition of the General Polish Poetry Competition. He was a student of Marek Rostworowski, they worked together on a number of publicly acclaimed exhibitions: “Romanticism and Romanticity in Polish Art of the 19th and 20th centuries”, “The Poles’ Own Portrait”, “Jews – Polish”. Many exhibitions and artistic shows were prepared by him alone, inter alia “The Vast Theatre of Stanisław Wyspiański”, presentations of artworks by great artists: Goya, Rafael, Titian, El Greco. He also created a few scenarios of permanent exhibitions from the Czartoryskis’ Collection – in Krakow and in Niepołomice – being a great expert on this collection. “Europeum” – European Culture Centre was organised according to the programme written by him. He specialised mostly, although not exclusively, in art and culture of the Renaissance. Janusz Wałek is presented herein as a museologist who was fully devoted to art, characterised by: creativity, broad perception of art and culture, unconventional approach to museum undertakings, unusual sensitivity and imagination. What the author of the article found worth emphasising is that J. Wałek talked and wrote about art not only as a scholar, but first of all as a poet, with beauty and zest of the language he used.

The Makers of Success

The community grouped around the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw played a pivotal role in the new perception of fiber art around the world. This discipline of art grew in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. The first generation of post-war students, which included Magdalena Abakanowicz, Wojciech Sadley, Jolanta Owidzka, Maria Chojnacka, and Barbara Levittoux-Świderska, and which had the support of excellent educators, enjoyed spectacular international success, thereby changing the attitudes to fiber art.Two great professors of ASP, Mieczysław Szymański and Eleonora Plutyńska, who were instrumental to the international success of Polish fiber art in the first half of the 20th century, were ASP graduates. They each represented a different personality and a different approach to textiles, and each focused on the development of different skills in students. While their workshops followed different curricula, the combination of their different artistic and teaching attitudes laid the foundation of the subsequent success.As chance would have it, these two prominent and yet so different artistic personalities crossed paths at the Academy in a difficult and yet seminal era. Two charismatic figures, drawing upon wisdom encapsulated in tradition, enriched with ideas of their contemporary period, transmitted their passion and a new vision of a previously moribund discipline to dozens of students. The merger of the two different approaches to reviving fiber art combined with the enthusiasm and creativity of a young generation of students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw made the new vision of artistic textiles inspiring to artists around the world. Thanks to a broad spectrum of discovered possibilities, the medium shed its merely utilitarian function and joined the liberated arts.

Food, emotions and memory in Justyna Gruszczyk’s scent installations

Abstract The article examines the use of food aromas in scent installations created by Polish artist Justyna Gruszczyk. In her work, she concentrates on non-visual means of communication. Her main field of interest are scents and their ability to evoke memories and emotions. In many of her scent installations, Gruszczyk uses food-based aromas to create a narrative or trigger emotions. In analysed examples, she uses the aroma of home-made cake, strawberry lollipops and coconut to deliver various meanings.

Grzegorza Królikiewicza dzieło, mitologie i racjonalizacje

Tekst poświęcony jest polskiemu artyście, reżyserowi filmowemu i pedagogowi, Grzegorzowi Królikiewiczowi (1939–2017). W niniejszym studium przypadku autor podejmuje kwestię całościowej spuścizny twórcy, osadzając ją w ramach koncepcji osobowości twórczej. Wiodącym pojęciem teoretycznym dla socjologicznego studium postawy artysty jest mitologia artystyczna. W postawie twórczej Grzegorza Królikiewicza autor dostrzega innowatora sztuki filmowej, historiozofa i proroka, reformatora społecznego, ale przede wszystkim „człowieka współczującego” ludziom biednym, upokorzonym, przegranym. W analizie dorobku artysty-pedagoga (wykładowcy PWSFTviT) bierze pod uwagę jego dorobek twórczy w postaci filmów i widowisk, osobiste wyznania i teksty krytyczne reżysera, a ponadto wybrane teksty filmoznawcze. Łącznie jest to 8 filmów fabularnych, 37 dokumentów filmowych, 21 spektakli telewizyjnych, ponadto 10 sztuk teatralnych i 10 książek – studiów teoretycznych.

Malarstwo materii w Polsce. Na marginesach odwilżowej "nowoczesności"

The painting of the matter was an important component of Polish art of the “thaw” period and the 1960s. So far Polish art historians have usually interpreted works made of non-traditional substances by Polish artists as examples of inspiration by Western art and a tendency to abandon the painting as such. Scholars and critics stressed the relief qualities of art objects and their impact on the spectator through the surface texture and the properties of the material used, often incorporated into a picture directly from reality and provoking specific associations. Such an approach did justice only to some such works, e.g., those painted with paints mixed with nonpainterly substances, with the mud effects of the palette, characteristic of French art (Aleksander Kobzdej, Jan Lebenstein), or abandoning traditional materials to challenge the painting as such (Jan Ziemski, Włodzimierz Borowski, Jerzy Rosołowicz). Thus far the reflection on the painting of the matter seems inadequate to the works in which paint was eliminated in favor of other materials and substances combined with painterly activities. Those unspecific substances and materials were often distributed on flat surfaces and composed in terms of basic division of the pictorial field, its main axes, relations to the edges, etc. Such “paintings made of matter” are interesting examples of the “thaw” art, which have not been interpreted as paintings, escaping chronological and other criteria of art history. Ambiguously called the “painting of the matter,” they occupied the margins of the critical discourse. The inadequacy of the terms adopted to describe them resulted in ignoring many works, while others have been included in the history of Polish art only in some aspects. So far no one has addressed the basic question of different artistic responses to the problem of searching for the limits of the painting, and related attempts to enhance the painterly idiom which was at the same time disrupted in a number of ways. The author analyzes works selected from the set of about three hundred items found in thirteen Polish museums. Regardless of the individual differences, the paintings by Jadwiga Maziarska, Bronisław Kierzkowski, Adam Marczyński, Teresa Rudowicz, and Krystyn Zieliński exemplify the combination of non-traditional substances and surface composition. Paradoxically, the decision to abandon paint did not make those artists deny the superior role of the surface, which resulted in the creation of works oscillating among painting, relief, and sculpture, close to collages or assemblages, yet quite specific. Their works either exploited the conditions offered by the framed flat surface or brought into play new, autonomous surfaces.

Spojrzenie z „drugiej strony”. Andrzej Wajda w dokumentach Wydziału Kultury KC PZPR w latach 80.

A LOOK FROM THE “OTHER SIDE”. ANDRZEJ WAJDA IN THE DOCUMENTS OF THE CULTURE DEPARTMENT OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PZPR POLISH UNITED WORKER’S PARTY IN THE 1980SFilm activity in the PRL Polish People’s Republic was subject to the Ministry of Culture and Arts and the Culture Department of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party. The latter one was a typical bureaucratic-party institution. It also means that it produced dozens of letters, reports, circulars, notes, etc. The name of Andrzej Wajda appears in them very often. No other artist was the object of such a grand interest, although of course Wajda was in the focus of attention of the Culture Department not only as a director, but above all as the president of the Polish Filmmakers Association and as the authority among filmmakers. Perhaps it is these voices from the “other side” that best inform how important he was in the 80’s among Polish artists. They also allow us to take a closer look at the tensions in this group. We can realize the party-bureaucratic dimension of film life in Poland and the way of functioning of one of the power centers responsible for cinematography.

Being an artist: a profession or a vocation? Socially engaged art by Joanna Rajkowska

The problem of the condition of artists in Poland is rarely addressed in public debate, which is particularly surprising in the world of growing disproportion between rapid development of the art market (the number of galleries, rising prices of auctioning) and still financially unstable and difficult situation of artists. The paper attempts to look at the economic and social status of Polish artists through the analysis of the artistic work of a Polish artist Joanna Rajkowska who tries to find her position in the socio-economic system, without giving up her creative activity. At the end of the paper the author will try to answer the question whether socially engaged art can bring about major changes in the system of financing art.

And the Vampires Flow Towards the West: The Ecological Poetics of Eastern European Migration in the UK

In the UK, words used to describe Eastern European countries continuously turn to movement, specifically to ‘flood’, ‘overflow’ and ‘flock’, as well as ‘tide’, and are often accompanied by meteorological language of prediction, including ‘migration flows’ and forecasting. These ecological descriptors evidence a speculative poetics of movement that pertains more widely to migration and its representation, conflating territorial boundaries, geopolitical jurisdictions and the nation-state in a neoliberal, and necessarily transnational circulation, against an unfolding ecological crisis causing irreparable damage across communities. This essay explores the relationship between the representational poetics of Eastern Europeans in the UK, that of movement in the work of two artists from the region, arguing for the emergence of subjectivities of the Anthropocene: plural, ecological and displaced. The project turns to two distinct, UK-based encounters with bodies that have arrived at movement, through movement, in and around the time of the Brexit referendum, and following on from the termination of transitional measures for A2 EU countries: Polish artist Justyna Scheuring’s Everyone, Merry Go Round (Canal Gallery, London, 2017) and Romanian artists Manuel Pelmus and Alexandra Pirici’s Public Collection (Tate Modern, London, 2016). The essay is presented as a four-part audio performance, that is in dialogue with a work of speculative fiction which draws together descriptions of choreographic incidents within these works. These are reset in a damaged future landscape as an exercise in representational poetics.

Witold Maliszewski in the music life of Ukraine and Poland

Witold Maliszewski was an eminent European musician of the first half of the twentieth century, whose lifelong creative and pedagogical endeavor left a deep imprint upon the musical life in both Ukraine and Poland. It is still of great importance in our time, especially if one recalls that the Odessa conservatory founded by Maliszewski gave the world such talents as Emil Gilels and David Oistrakh and that Maliszewski’s students in Warsaw were Witold Lutosławski and Andrzej Panufnik. Nevertheless, despite a large body of research dedicated to Maliszewski and numerous citations in the monographs a comprehensive artist’s biography that meets the modern requirements has not yet been written. Additionally, the outdated publications produced by the stagnant traditions of the Soviet era musicology continue to exhibit some influence. Most recently the study of the composer’s life and creative heritage is mainly originated by the Polish researchers, while the Ukrainian musicologists are somewhat behind. The notable exceptions are the works by the Odessa musicologists who investigate the pertinent aspects of Maliszewski’s life as the founder and first rector of the Odessa Conservatory.This work was written and based on a critical review and assessment of numerous publications by the Ukrainian and foreign researchers, as well as the documents from the Vilinsky family archive. The study peruses materials from Ukrainian and Polish sources and documents found during the research in the archives, and libraries in Ukraine and abroad, particularly in the United States. The authors had applied historical, chronological and comparative methods while also introducing a systematic approach. From the standpoint and in the context of the modern musicology, the sheer scale of influence and current importance of Maliszewski’s legacy is emphasized.The aim of the study is an attempt to actualize this highly spirited and vibrant personality for Ukrainian culture and to convey a coherent depiction of Witold Maliszewski’s life, pedagogical and creative legacy, as well as to analyze and dismount the ideological overlays of the previous époque and to dismiss their derivative stereotypes.Findings. Despite all bans and attempts to neglect the creative and pedagogical legacy of Witold Maliszewski, carried out by the Soviet authorities, his name and the memory of his out-standing contribution to musical culture have always been well preserved and will be kept in great esteem by grateful descendants. Nowadays, amongst the professionals and music lovers, there is a particularly noticeable renaissance of interest related to Witold Maliszewski’s personality as a composer and teacher, whose inspirational life unites Ukraine and Poland. The Witold Lutosławski Centennial celebration under the auspices of UNESCO in 2013 has also largely contributed to such interest. The comprehensive discography of the composer’s works published in recent years has become a projection of Maliszewski’s creative output into the 21st century. The posture of Witold Maliszewski as an outstanding Polish artist and public figure, his creative output and pedagogical heritage in the realm of the musical life of Ukraine and Poland still awaits a complete and fair assessment, and recognition.

W poszukiwaniu „narodowości w fotografice”

In Search for the “National Features in Photography” Summary The main point of the paper is the interest of Polish photographers in nationalist ideas, which has long been one of the forgotten and overlooked episodes in the history of twentieth-century Polish photography. The issue appeared for the first time in 1931-1933, when Polish photographic magazines published a debate about revealing national traits in a photo. It was an aftermath of the idea of the national style in Polish art, promoted since the early 1920s in relation to the needs of the state that just became independent. The greatest authorities of the time took part in the debate, including Jan Bułhak, Józef Świtkowski, Jan Sunderland, and Antoni Wieczorek, who were the main theorists of the Polish photography in the early 20th century. Analyzing the problem, they reverted to various arguments, from purely formal ones, assuming a characteristic tendency of Polish artists to choose particular forms and types of composition (a view based on the theory of pictorialism), through thematic (referring to collective memory and the historical experience of Poles), sociological, and even legal (based on the ideas of Leon Petrażycki). The same arguments were often used later throughout the century. The paper presents the development and theoretical basis of the debate in the early 1930s, as well as later evolution of the concepts which, coined at that time, contributed to the theory of Polish photography in the 20th century.

Polska i niemiecka historia sztuki w polemicznym dyskursie - sympozjum w Rogalinie w roku 1973.

Polish and German Art History in a Polemic. The Rogalin Symposium of 1973 Summary The paper recapitulates a discussion over the book, Das Kunstwerk zwischen Wissenschaft und Weltanschauung, ed. Martin Warnke, Köln 1970, which was an aftermath of a pungent statement made by critical German art historians at the Congress of German Art Historians held in Köln in 1970. The main idea of the book was showing the “work of art as an object of ideological interests, a victim of ideological interventions” (Warnke) – in this case, those of a nationalist, Nazi, and fascist origin. A critical impulse triggered by the congress and the book was the main reason for organizing a symposium in Rogalin in 1973, during which art historians from Poznań delivered papers-comments on four articles included in the German publication. Taking into consideration the key message of the book, in the first place they focused on the methodological and theoretical assumptions adopted by German scholars. Stressing the discrepancy between the goals and assumptions of the German publication and its Polish reception, the author treats the papers delivered in Rogalin as evidence of a methodological shift in Polish art history of the early 1970s. His main observations are the following: the end of the dominant approach focusing on the artwork itself; a shift toward approaching it in terms of the communicative triad “sender-work-recipient”; acknowledging the inevitable involvement of the art historian (scholar-recipient) in that historically determined framework. It is notable that the Polish scholars virtually ignored the ideological and critical approach to the evolution of art history that was developed in the German book. Moreover, the paper presents the historical background of both the Köln conference and its proceedings as well as the specific determinants of art history in the communist Poland, particularly as regards its contacts with the two German states.

All You Need Is Love: The Importance of Partner and Family Relations to Highly Creative Individuals’ Well‐Being and Success

AbstractThe aim of the article was to investigate how the family life of highly creative individuals—mainly marriages or romantic relationships—is related to their sense of success and well‐being. Previous studies have led to conflicting conclusions. The predominant finding has been that marriage and family constitute an obstacle to creative potential development. Other studies have demonstrated that, regardless of gender, creators lead satisfying family lives, which contributes to their well‐being. The study presented in this paper is based on the grounded theory methodology and triangulates two sources: interviews with prominent creators from the USA conducted years ago (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996, N = 91) and interviews with recognized contemporary Polish artists and scientists (N = 34). Based on interactions between the interviewees’ perception of themselves as creators and their perception of gender and family roles, the authors identify and discuss five types of relationship between creators’ family life and work. They also discuss the factors that hinder or facilitate creators’ satisfactory functioning in both areas in each of the five types of relationship.

Camera rolling, action, reaction. Interactive document – study of development prospects in Poland

Interactive documentaries bring new possibilities of artistic expression. They allow innovative ways of engaging the viewer, personalizing experiences, and building a community. At the same time interactive documentaries bring challenges: the need of new production skills, openness to experimentation, the development of new financing models. There is still a need to create a language to describe new formats. The semantic elusiveity of this area seems to be reflected in its market position. The genre is suspended between film, documentary film and computer games and both the audience and the distributors have difficulties defining it. This text is an attempt to describe what an interactive documentary might be, what sets it apart from other formats, and what’s the viewer’s role in this type of audio-visual formats. We present a few flagship projects from different countries and we look at the Polish audio-visual industry. We conducted a survey, asking Polish artists working on so-called new narratives about their work conditions and the biggest challenges they are facing. The second part of the text covers the results of our study.

Uwaga, ekran, akcja, reakcja. Czym jest dokument interaktywny – perspektywy rozwoju w Polsce na podstawie badań

Interactive documentaries bring new possibilities of artistic expression. They allow innovative ways of engaging the viewer, personalizing experiences, and building a community. At the same time interactive documentaries bring challenges: the need of new production skills, openness to experimentation, the development of new financing models. There is still a need to create a language to describe new formats. The semantic elusiveity of this area seems to be reflected in its market position. The genre is suspended between film, documentary film and computer games and both the audience and the distributors have difficulties defining it. This text is an attempt to describe what an interactive documentary might be, what sets it apart from other formats, and what’s the viewer’s role in this type of audio-visual formats. We present a few flagship projects from different countries and we look at the Polish audio-visual industry. We conducted a survey, asking Polish artists working on so-called new narratives about their work conditions and the biggest challenges they are facing. The second part of the text covers the results of our study.

„Pan świeczników i gwiazd” (Ap 1,12-20) G. Bednarskiego – ilustracja czy interpretacja pierwszej wizji Apokalipsy Janowej?

In this article I discuss one of contemporary examples of The Book of Revelation’s influence to the art, which is the series of illustrations, created by Grzegorz Bednarski, to the chosen parts of the last Bible’s book. “The Lord of Candlestics and Stars”, first work of the series, showing the initial vision of the Apocalypse, was point of my analysis. After discussing the genesis Bednarski’s illustrations and short review of the biblical text, I put a question presented in the title: Is the work of Polish artist is only a more or less successful drawing based on biblical text, or is rather theological interpretation, which enables to discover the real message of the Apocalypse? Analyses shows, that artist’s work primarily remain faithful to the prophetic message of The Book of Revelation and is the way of interpretation and actualization biblical message. Artist became an exegetist, who extracts theological message from the Book. He is “the voice”, which “can and should be seen” to have better understanding of it. In this way, Grzegorz Bednarski convey something unimaginable, but important, essential and necessary.

Polish Footprint on Canadian Art

Abstract Until the second half of the twentieth century, art in Canada meant painting, with other forms (sculpture, tapestry, ceramics, etc.) being marginalized, relegated to a kind of second-class display. Their creators were stylized, not as artists but more pejoratively as artisans—people who executed a useful trade. European immigrants changed this parochial view. They brought with them the European perspective, that inspiration and genius can be found in a wide range of creative endeavor, and they patiently imposed this perspective on Canada. This article describes the contributions of some of these people, the Polish immigrant artists of the last decades of the twentieth century.

Wiedeńskie kontakty "Sztuki" - z zapisów w Księdze Protokołów Towarzystwa Artystów Polskich

The Society of Polish Artists “Sztuka” was doubly elitist: it presented carefully selected works by the artists of choice that is almost exclusively by the members of the association. This important group, as far as the Polish culture is concerned, first revolutionized the artistic life at home (1897–1918) but then started to fade (until the 1950s). There exist no monographs regarding the association, therefore, the analysis of The Proceedings of the Society of Polish Artists “Sztuka” (Protokoly Posiedzen TAP „Sztuka”, 1897–1912) provides insight into the less known aspects of the Society’s functioning. Of interest are undoubtedly the contacts with the Secession and Hagenbund regarding the organization of exhibitions (also with the Czech Manes). The process of gaining funding for exhibitions shows the establishment of a model of state financing, which sometimes involved the loss of artists’ artistic freedom (it was part of the cultural policy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that balanced the national issues). The members of the Society of Polish Artists needed to face the following questions: who has the right to represent Polish artists from all partitions? What should the work of the jury look like so that the dominance of one artistic trend is avoided (especially the esthetic concepts of J. Stanislawski)? The article reconstructs differences in the rules governing the cooperation between the Society of Polish Artists and the Wiener Secession and Hagenbund (that housed the biggest Polish exhibition before 1918, completely forgotten today). An important aspect of the article is the discussion of the internal conflicts that threatened the existence of the Society of Polish Artists. In the conclusion, the article indicates the directions of cooperation of Polish artists with Kunstlerbund Hagen in the years 1918–1938.

Modjeska, Paderewski, and the California Landscape

Two Polish artists—the renowned actress Helena Modjeska and the famous composer and pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski—were drawn to California in the 1870s and 1910s respectively. Their bond with the California landscape in Modjeska’s ranch, El Refugio, near Santa Ana, and Paderewski’s Rancho San Ignacio, near Paso Robles, offered them retreats from their performance tours, restored their health, and gave them a sense of belonging. In turn, both transformed the landscape of the imaginary as they developed productive agriculture.

Red Trauma: Aleksander Kobzdej’s Informel and the Challenge of Stalinist Past

This article investigates the relation between Socialist realism and Polish ‘matter painting’. By taking a closer look at the use of red hue developed by Aleksander Kobzdej for his informel compositions, it attempts to uncover psychological challenges Polish post-war artist had to face trying to emancipate from the Socialist tradition. A major work that only distantly approaches the topic of psychological stigma came to light along with the exhibition Nowoczesni a Socrealizm, which took place at the Starmach Gallery in Krakow in 2000. A more developed argument in this matter can be found in Tomasz Gryglewicz’s paper ‘Co zawdzięcza sztuka polska PRL-owi?’ in which he pointed out that the success of Polish ‘matter painting’ was based on the fact that Polish artists managed to preserve the pre-war ideas of Polish structuralism and colourism from the trauma of war and Stalinism. This alleged success became the input of Polish ‘matter painting’ in the development of European post-war art. This article offers an alternative argument to the one presented by Gryglewicz as it points to the fact that the unique character of the Polish art of the 1960s comes not from the ability to rebuild the pre-war avant-garde tradition, but rather from the ability to challenge the distress caused by the Stalinist past.