Polish Art Research Articles

Polski feminizm - paradygmaty

The issue of feminist art struggles with a great problem. In my study I focus solely on Polish artists, and thus on the genealogy of feminist art in Poland. Although all the presented activities brought up the feminist thread, in many cases a dissonance occurs on the level of the artists’ own reflections. There is a genuine reluctance of many Polish artists to use the term “feminist” about their art. They dissent from such categorization as if afraid that the very name will bring about a negative reception of their art. And here, in my opinion, a paradox appears, because despite such statements, their creativity itself is in fact undoubtedly feminist. I think that Polish artists express themselves through their art in an unambiguous way – they show their feminine „I”. The woman is displayed in their statement about themselves, about the experiences, their body, their sexuality. Feminism defined the concept of art in a new way. The statement that art has no gender is a myth. The activities of women-artists are broader and broader, also in Poland women become more and more noticed and appreciated. Feminist art does not feature a separate artistic language, it rather features a tendency towards realism, lent by photography or video, which reflects the autonomy of the female reception of the world. It should be stated that feminism is a socially needed phenomenon, and its critique drives successive generations of women-artists.

POLISH FEMINISM – PARADIGMS

Sylwia Witkowska Polish Feminism – Paradigms The issue of feminist art struggles with a great problem. In my study I focus solely on Polish artists, and thus on the genealogy of feminist art in Poland. Although all the presented activities brought up the feminist thread, in many cases a dissonance occurs on the level of the artists’ own reflections. There is a genuine reluctance of many Polish artists to use the term “feminist” about their art. They dissent from such categorization as if afraid that the very name will bring about a negative reception of their art. And here, in my opinion, a paradox appears, because despite such statements, their creativity itself is in fact undoubtedly feminist. I think that Polish artists express themselves through their art in an unambiguous way – they show their feminine „I”. The woman is displayed in their statement about themselves, about the experiences, their body, their sexuality. Feminism defined the concept of art in a new way. The state- ment that art has no gender is a myth. The activities of women-artists are broader and broader, also in Poland women become more and more noticed and appreciated. Feminist art does not feature a separate artistic language, it rather features a tendency towards realism, lent by photogra- phy or video, which reflects the autonomy of the female reception of the world. It should be stated that feminism is a socially needed phenomenon, and its critique drives successive generations of women-artists.

Kształcenie w zakresie grafiki w szkolnictwie artystycznym Krakowa, Lwowa i Wilna w latach międzywojennych

Training in graphics in the artistic education of Cracow, Lvov and Vilnius during the interwar years (1918–39)The beginnings of art education in Poland are connected with the cities of Cracow, Vilnius and Warsaw in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the interwar period (1918–39), in addition to the most powerful graphics education center in Warsaw, this discipline of art developed intensively in the art schools in Lvov, Cracow and Vilnius. The development of graphics in the Cracow Academy is related to the artistic and educational activities of Józef Pankiewicz. In 1923, the independent Department of Graphic Arts was established, conducted by John Wojnarski in collaboration with Andrzej Jurkiewicz and Jan Rubczak. The next outstanding teachers are Ludwik Gardowski and Konrad Strzednicki. Graphics education in the Municipal School of Art Industry (Miejska Szkoła Przemysłu Artystycznego) in Cracow is headed by Witold Chomicz. Graphics education in Lvov is linked to the activity of such artists as Ludwik Tyrowicz and Maria Rużycka. Ferdynand Ruszczyc, Bonawentura Lenart introduce the study of graphics into the curriculum of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Stefan Batory University in Vilnius. Since 1930, Jerzy Hoppen started the graphics workshop. In the 1930s, the graphic arts established a permanent and significant position in Polish art education.

Introduction to “Common Space and Individual Space: Comments on a Group Task from the First Half of 1993,” Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw

Abstract The introductory text presents “Common Space and Individual Space: Comments on a Group Task from the First Half of 1993,” a document translated into English from Polish and published here. The original document was first published in Czereja, a magazine created by the students of Kowalnia, a studio for diploma art students run by Grzegorz Kowalski in the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. “Common Space” compiles the students' accounts of a performative group activity entitled Pierożek drewniany, zimnym mięsem nadziewany (translated as Wooden Dumpling, Filled with Cold Meat) from the 1992–93 academic year. The introduction analyzes “Common Space” as a part of the very creative process within the Wooden Dumpling activity and describes its meaning within the socio-political contexts of post-1989 Poland. It explains the role of Kowalnia's practices as a unique pedagogical experiment anomalous within the fairly traditional art education systems of Central and Eastern Europe of the time. The introduction argues that the document is not only relevant for our understanding of Polish art in the 1990s, but also provokes broader questions about the feasibility and efficacy of socially engaged art practices as well as the communicative strategies employed within them.

Common Space and Individual Space: Comments on a Group Task from the First Half of 1993

Abstract The introductory text presents “Common Space and Individual Space: Comments on a Group Task from the First Half of 1993,” a document translated into English from Polish and published here. The original document was first published in Czereja, a magazine created by the students of Kowalnia, a studio for diploma art students run by Grzegorz Kowalski in the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. “Common Space” compiles the students' accounts of a performative group activity entitled Pierożek drewniany, zimnym mięsem nadziewany (translated as Wooden Dumpling, Filled with Cold Meat) from the 1992–93 academic year. The introduction analyzes “Common Space” as a part of the very creative process within the Wooden Dumpling activity and describes its meaning within the socio-political contexts of post-1989 Poland. It explains the role of Kowalnia's practices as a unique pedagogical experiment anomalous within the fairly traditional art education systems of Central and Eastern Europe of the time. The introduction argues that the document is not only relevant for our understanding of Polish art in the 1990s, but also provokes broader questions about the feasibility and efficacy of socially engaged art practices as well as the communicative strategies employed within them.

INTERNATIONAL CRITICAL RECEPTION OF PROPAGANDIST EXHIBITIONS OF POLISH ART IN THE 1920S AND 1930S

The goal of this article is first of all to describe the reception of exhibitions of Polish interwar art in the foreign press. I pay closer attention to those of exhibitions that were most prestigious and acclaimed, such as the Venice Biennale, where representatives of Polish art were juxtaposed with other countries’ pavilions and judged in comparison to them. It was the time of the battle against the radical avant-garde, accused of bringing art to a state of impasse, stagnation, or even slow agony. Most exhibitions of Polish art abroad were organized by Mieczysław Treter (1883–1943) a philosopher and art historian, but also an exhibition curator and director of TOSSPO (the Association for the Promotion of Polish Art Abroad), who faced a very difficult task trying to fulfil his mission to promote Polish art through exhibitions. He had to take into account this artistic climate and the dynamically changing situation on the art market, and respond to the expectations of foreign critics, who would examine the art of particular nations with the focus on manifestations of national style. On the other hand, he had to consider the opinions of the Polish artists and critics as well as pressures from the ministry and Polish diplomats

Analiza materii fonicznej wybranych słuchowisk Andrzeja Waligórskiego

The study of radio art, whose most representative genres include radio drama39, is undoubtedly of interest not only to media scholars. Works of art created for the radio, as sound art pieces per se, are also becoming an engaging research ground for such disciplines as theory of music or musicol- ogy. Some of the most fascinating examples of radio dramas that may be found in the archives ofRadio Wroclaw are those created by Andrzej Waligorski – a distinctive artist whose activity fell onthe “golden days” of Polish radio drama art, commonly dated back to the 1960s and 1970s. Hisworks constitute a perfect example of a diverse approach to the phonic material of radio drama employed in order to enhance the presentation of the world depicted in the piece. Words and sounds, including music, become carriers of multiple meanings, which the author of the present article at- tempts to explore.

An analysis of the phonic material in selected radio dramas by Andrzej Waligórski

The study of radio art, whose most representative genres include radio drama1, is undoubtedly of interest not only to media scholars. Works of art created for the radio, as sound art pieces per se, are also becoming an engaging research ground for such disciplines as theory of music or musicology. Some of the most fascinating examples of radio dramas that may be found in the archives of RadioWroclaw are those created by Andrzej Waligorski – a distinctive artist whose activity fell on the “golden days” of Polish radio drama art, commonly dated back to the 1960s and 1970s. His works constitute a perfect example of a diverse approach to the phonic material of radio drama employed in order to enhance the presentation of the world depicted in the piece. Words and sounds, including music, become carriers of multiple meanings, which the author of the present article attempts to explore.

ПРОБЛЕМАТИКА ПОЛЬСЬКОГО РОМАНТИЗМУ В РЕЦЕПЦІЇ ЛІТЕРАТУРНОГО КРИТИКА МІХАЛА ГРАБОВСЬКОГО (на матеріалі листування)

Problems of polish romanticism in the perception of literary critic Mihal Grabovskyj (according to the materials of correspondence). This article is devoted to integrated research into correspondence of polish literary man M. Grabovskyj, analyzed literary and philosophic views of master in a diachronic aspect, his aesthetic priorities, described the evolution of general vital references of theoretician, and outlined the division into periods of creation and philosophic views of figure. A lot of attention is given to elucidation letters’ genres of M. Grabovskyj and its style. For the first time it is the attempt of new valuation of his achievements and intentions, consideration and description epistolary heritage of M. Grabovskyj, which include theoretical-literary dialogues with the famous polish artists of XIX c. In his enormous array there are the conceptual reasoning andestimations of both work of separate writers and of that timeliterary process. The looks of writer were constantly evolved, that does any division into periods of correspondence conditional enough. However there sre distinguished two periods: European-”loyal” (1823 -1843) and later “tendentious” clerical-panslavics’ (1843 – 1863). The range of letters’ problems of of the first period marks adaptation of ideas of European (German) romanticism to national traditions, grouping and consolidation by the leaders of Polish romantic literature. These ideas contain optimistic character and sent to deepening the national perception of the world. The second period is characterized by correlations of the own theory of romanticism, ambiguousness of communicative structure. Grabovskyj comprehended the nomenclature of texts of romantic canon. The letters of М. Grabovskyj, that became the article of independent analysis first, substantially specify presentation in the relation to his literary- aesthetic program realized in the articles. In that correspondences, especially in those that are addressed to the closest friends he was frank and formulated the positions laconically and clearly. In the letters of artist it is legitimate to see continuation of critical articles.

L'Émigration Musicale Polonaise À Paris Pendant L'Entre-Deux-Guerres: Artistes – Événements – Contextes

In the nineteenth century, the French capital was a travel destination for Polish musicians, especially in the 1830s and '40s, when, after the fall of the November Uprising, nearly the entire political, intellectual, and artistic elite of the Congress Kingdom made its way there. A second important wave of emigration was during the interwar period (1918-1939). There was a large group of Polish artists in Paris at this time—composers, singers, instrumentalists. In 1926, they founded the Association des jeunes musiciens polonais, whose aim was to organise artistic events, as well as provide material aid to its members. An entire corps of distinguished musicians passed through the Association, and honorary patrons included, among others, Nadia Boulanger, Robert Brussel, Maurice Ravel, and Albert Roussel. The Association's activity was an unprecedented campaign that permitted the younger generation of Polish musicians to emerge in the international arena.

ВІЗУАЛЬНИЙ ТЕКСТ АБО “СЛОВА НА ВОЛІ”: ВІД ФУТУРИЗМУ ЧЕРЕЗ КОНКРЕТНУ ПОЕЗІЮ ДО МЕРЕЖЕВОЇ ЛІТЕРАТУРИ

The aim of the article is to present the changes which the literary text with visual values is subjected to. As the starting point of our intellectual considerations we chose the turning-point between 19th and 20th century, when as a result of artistic actions of such avant-garde artists as Guillaume Apollinaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, dramatic changes in the perception of the semantic meaning of poety occurred, which brought about the situation in which the visual structure of the text became quite essential. In the beginning of the 20th century the need for the necessary changes within the scope of literature and visual arts, were noticed by such diverse artists connected with Futurism, as Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, who advocated in his „one-day” publications and manifestoes the slogans which were spelled out in various different languages parole in libertá – with „words-in- freedom”. In Poland a similar role was played by such artists as Brunon Jasieński (1901-1938), Stanisław Młodożeniec (1895-1959), Alexander Watt (1900-1967), Anatol Stern (1899-1968) and Tytus Czyżewski (1880-1945), who presented a multi-sensual reality, in the poetry with „mechanical instinct”. The aim of the article is to present the changes which the literary text with visual values is subjected to. As the starting point of our intellectual considerations we chose the turning-point between 19th and 20th century, when as a result of artistic actions of such avant-garde artists as Guillaume Apollinaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, dramatic changes in the perception of the semantic meaning of poety occurred, which brought about the situation in which the visual structure of the text became quite essential. In the beginning of the 20th century the need for the necessary changes within the scope of literature and visual arts, were noticed by such diverse artists connected with Futurism, as Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, who advocated in his „one-day” publications and manifestoes the slogans which were spelled out in various different languages parole in libertá – with „words-in- freedom”. In Poland a similar role was played by such artists as Brunon Jasieński (1901-1938), Stanisław Młodożeniec (1895-1959), Alexander Watt (1900-1967), Anatol Stern (1899-1968) and Tytus Czyżewski (1880-1945), who presented a multi-sensual reality, in the poetry with „mechanical instinct”. A vivid interest concerning the modern typography in the period which took place immediately after the end of the First World War and during the interwar period of the Great Avant-Garde, was shown by various artists who were closely related to Dadaism and the Polish art group called „a.r”. Here a special mention is desrved by the pioneer accomplishments in the range of lettering craft and the so-called „functional printing” of the famous artist Władysław Strzemiński (1893-1952). The next essential moment in the development of the new approach to the synesthesia of the printed text and fine arts is the period of the 1960s of the 20th century and the period of „concrete poetry” (Eugen Gomringer, brothers Augusto and Haroldo de Campos from Brazil, Öyvind Fahlström). In Poland, the undisputed leader of this movement was the artist Stanisław Dróżdż (1939-2009), the originator of the so-called „conceptual-shapes”. In the 21st century, the emanation of actions which endevour to join and link closely poetry with visual arts is the electronic literature, referred to as digital or html. Artists associated with this formation, usually produce their works only by means of a laptop or personal computer and with the intention that the computer the main carrier / medium of their work. Among the creators of such works of art, it is possibile to mention such authors of the young generation as Robert Szczerbiowski, Radosław Nowakowski, Sławomir Shuty.

Artystyczna przyjaźń w Atelier Madoura — Michel Sima, Pablo Picasso

ARTISTIC FRIENDSHIP AT THE MADOURA STUDIO: MICHEL SIMA AND PABLO PICASSO The article discusses numerous significant trends of 20 th -century art and aims to complement the extensive sources concerning the activity of Poles in France. It focuses on one of the most important and now largely forgotten pottery workshop of the French Riviera, the Madoura Studio. The article discusses the artists connected with this site, their works and the influence of Pablo Picasso on the economic situation of Vallauris. It also explores the artistic friendship between Pablo Picasso and Polish artist Michel Sima (Michal Smajewski). It reveals obscure facts from Sima’s life and explores fragments of his abundant artistic legacy, which is stored in the private archives of his family. The author of the article makes an attempt to systematize and analyze Smajewski’s ceramic works and, most significantly, to demonstrate that he was not merely a man documenting Picasso’s creations but an important artist of the Ecole de Paris in his own right.

Some remarks concerning Polish Japonisme movement from the Modernist Era

Polish Japonisme, i.e. Japanese art inspirations in the work of the Polish painters and printmakers of the early period of modernism (the late 19th and early 20th centuries).The article will present well-known Polish artists such as Olga Bozna?ska, Julian Fa?at, Wojciech Weiss, Leon Wyczó?kowski, Satnis?aw Wyspia?ski as well as Jan Stanis?awski and his talented students. Juxtaposing works done by Polish artists of the Young Poland period with selected examples of Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints and silk paintings (done by such masters as: Hokusai, Hiroshige and Utamaro) as well sculptures and artistic handicrafts, I will demonstrate this phenomenon seen from the 21century perspective. This new approach encourages the reader to make comparisons, to look – almost automatically – for similarities and differences between Polish and Japanese arts, and by revealing the clear and deep analogies between the two cultures, to engage in intercultural dialogue.Key words:Polish art, Japonisme, ukiyo-e prints.

Eyes Wide Shut. L’incontro a Leeds fra Zygmunt Bauman e Mirosław Bałka

The article is the description of some of the themes dealt with in the book Bauman/Balka (2012), recording of a meeting in Leeds the previous year between the Polish artist and the sociologist and philosopher, emigrated from Poland following the anti-Semitic campaign in 1968. Starting from Balka's working methodology, the conversation touches the themes of memory, artistic creation, the sense of the past, the capacity (and the obligation) of the art to reflect upon it.

Report on the 7th International Congress of IMACSSS and the 4th World Scientific Congress of Sports and Martial Arts

This report outlines the 7th International Congress of the International Martial Arts and Combat Sports Scientific Society (IMACSSS) and the 4th World Scientific Congress of Sports and Martial Arts (Rzeszow, Poland, October 17-19, 2018) to provide constructive criticism for future conferences. The conference drew numerous scholars from four continents and showcased research on both well-known martial arts and combat sports (e.g., Judo and Taekwondo), while providing a spotlight for less-researched arts (e.g., Malaysia’s Silat and various Polish art forms) as well. Presentations were on qualitative and quantitative research and spanned several academic disciplines. While the three-day conference was organized well and expertly run, slight changes to the schedule could maximize participants’ overall experience at future IMACSSS events.

The Memoirs of Olgerd Strashynsky in Reconstruction of the Polish Component of the Boris Lyatoshynsky’s Biography

In the article the role of this source in the understanding of the life and work of the Ukrainian composer is considered. Due to this source’s involvement in the scientific discussion, the process of biographical reconstruction of various stages of the life and creativity of B. Lyatoshynsky was elaborated. The informational richness of this source helped to illuminate and clarify a number of gaps and clarifications in the artist’s biography, the influence of the Polish component on the formation of his creative personality, especially of the early and late periods of his life. The genre classification of the source is a literary portrait, a fairly common form of modern memoirs. Written several months after the composer’s death, Strashynsky’s memories, in fact, became the first account for the general public of the life narrative of B. Lyatoshynsky. Written for the Polish art magazine «Ruch Muzyczny», the memoirs of O. Strashynsky became the first posthumous representation of B. Lyatoshynsky’s creative interests for the Polish artistic community, which, to some extent, was aware of the «Polish part» of the late-stage work of Lyatoshynsky. After all, the composer was relatively often heard in Polish concert halls and on Polish radio and television. These memoirs became one of the first attempts to include B. Lyatoshynsky in the Polish-Ukrainian (at that time — Polish-Soviet) artistic dialogue. Realized through the genre of literary portraiture, this dialogue of cultures, according to O. Strashynsky, was associated with the formation of B. Lyatoshynsky as an artist in the Polish environment and the constant transformation of Polish discourse throughout his whole creative life. Constant exploration of his Polish (ancestral) and native Ukrainian cultures, especially in the late period of his creativity, on the principle of convergence (synthesis) of many Slavic cultures, resulted in the so-called Pan-Slavic subject of the late stage of the Ukrainian artist’s work.

From ‘Peripheral’ Warsaw to No Less Marginal Groningen: Mieczysław Szczuka’s Artistic Influence on Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman

ABSTRACT This article presents a remarkable case study of artistic influences between two avant-garde artists who still gain insufficient recognition in international accounts of European modern art, namely between Mieczysław Szczuka and Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman – eminent representatives of Polish and Dutch interwar avant-gardes, respectively. They both lived and worked far from historiographical artistic ‘centres’, did not travel much, yet their work indicates considerable influence exerted by one of these ‘peripheral’ artists on the other. Interestingly, it is the Polish artist Szczuka whose works became a source of artistic inspiration for the Dutchman Werkman, providing a remarkable example of East-West artistic influence that has so far rarely been recognized by the historiographers of the avant-garde. This particular case study is based on an analysis of preserved historical material and selected artworks that give evidence of Szczuka’s influence on Werkman and at the same time question historiographical assumptions regarding cultural mobility ‘from centres to peripheries’ and ‘from West to East’.

Financial returns and cultural price determinants on the polish art market, 1991–2012

The paper investigates the price determinants, risk/return characteristics and investment performances of the Polish art market. Special attention is given to cultural and historical determinants underlying the creation of the Polish art market after 1989 and the dynamics of changes in the first two decades after the system transition. Data from auction annuals during the years from 1991 to 2012 and repeat-sales regression (RSR) method are used to create the index of 28,951 art transactions. Based on the art index values, we observe that the art index for the Polish auction market exhibits similar returns to the ones on treasury bonds and much lower returns than the ones on the Polish stock and gold prices. The volatility of the art index is, what is striking, much lower than the volatility of stocks, comparable to gold prices and much higher than the volatility of treasury bonds. Moreover, high correlation between art and money market instruments suggests a limited portfolio diversification opportunity.

Wystawa "100 lat realizmu w sztuce polskiej" w Akademii Sztuk Pięknych ZSRR w Moskwie (1952) w kontekście polsko-radzieckich stosunków kulturalnych w latach 1949-1955

The article analyses the exhibition named „100 lat realizmu w sztuce polskiej” [100 Years of Realism in Polish Art] at the Academy of Fine Arts in Moscow in 1952 and its reception in the artistic environment of USSR in the context of Polish-Soviet artistic relations in 1949–1955. The exposition, prepared by the Committee of the International Cultural Cooperation with and the Ministry of Culture and Art, consisted of the Polish art of the 19th century and the art of a few previous years. It was supposed to present to the Soviet party the progress of the implementation of Socialist Realism in Poland on the basis of the Soviet example and Polish tradition of realistic art. However, the implementation of the scheme deviated from the official declarations due to both including in the exhibition the turn of the century, as well as presenting the issues of modernism and the selection of modern pieces, resulting from the specific emphases in the cultural policy of the time. The contemporary department was composed of pieces of artists from the ‘Sopot School’, combining in its art the Socialist Realism doctrine with elements of colourism. Opening the method onto elements of the Impressionism tradition was dictated by a need to break the deadlock which the Polish art found itself in soon after the 1st OWP. The exhibition caused a reaction in the environment of Soviet critics and artists, exposing differences in attitude towards art in the two countries, which, in the conditions of the political dominance of USSR, had been deepened further with time, impinging on the artistic relations dynamics.

Działania artystyczne w gdańskim środowisku fotograficznym promujące fotografię marynistyczną w latach 1948-1981

With Gdansk artists an approach to the subject of the marine photography, was marked on several levels – artistic, documentary, journalistic and usable. Since 1945 to the first half of the 80s, we notice the popularization of maritime theme in the environment throughout artistic exhibition activities, and the program objectives. Maritime photography or maritime themes in photography? An analysis of the photographic medium in terms of belonging to the art can give the answer to this question. It is also worth considering whether there was „Gdansk School of the Maritime Photography”? The phenomenon of Polish marine art in the case of photography has been strongly emphasized in the Gdansk photography environment. The traditional display of the maritime theme has been broken, and with the approval of the authorities. Shipyard workers and dockers joined to the effigy of the sea people (fishermen, sailors). Photographers began to enter the maritime economy and use the effects of cooperation with maritime institutions for artistic purposes. Thematic exhibitions on shipyards and ports were created showing the sea from a different point of view, from the perspective of land. Socio-political events related to Solidarity stopped the promotion of the sea through the image of a shipyard worker and a shipyard, which became icons of the struggle for freedom. The Gdansk photographic community after the socio-political crisis of the first half of the 1980s, has not yet rebuilt its leading position in the dissemination of the maritime theme in photography on a large scale. Maritime exhibitions still appeared, but mainly on the local level, and the sea was reduced to the landscape understood very traditionally. At the same time photographers of the younger generation were interested in completely different issues of the style and aesthetics of photography. Te slogan „face to the sea” ceased to correspond with new times.