How the history of contemporary art in Middle Europe developed …
PL
The Forties / Fifties
February 12, 1949. The beginning of Socialist Realism in Poland. Artists’ Conference in Nieborów, organized by the Ministry of Culture and Art, with the participation of the Deputy Minister, Włodzimierz Sokorski, who has direct political supervision over artists.
Finally, Socialist Realism as a binding doctrine in art and culture in Poland was decreed in June this year, at the National Congress of Delegates of the Association of Polish Artists and Designers (ZPAP) in Katowice.
The National Exhibition of Young Visual Arts titled Against War – Against Fascism at the Aresenale in Warsaw, hence commonly known as Arsenale, is considered to be the end of the period of Socialist Realism in Poland, opened on July 21, 1955. The exhibition was held as part of the 5th World Festival of Youth and Students.
The Sixties
• First meeting of artist-run galleries and the first manifestation of the new artist-run initiative (ARI) movement as an unofficial art institution. Eight galleries and five salons of debutants participated. The OdNowa Gallery in Poznań operated in a students’ club from 1964 to 1969.
The Seventies
• The Permafo Gallery and group were founded in Wrocław at an artists’ club and operated until the imposition of martial law in 1981. The first conceptual gallery and an art project at the same time focused on photography as a new art media.
• Warsztat Formy Filmowej (WFF) (Film Form Workshop (FFW)) was founded in Łódź and operated in the years 1970-1977. It was established by the students of the Cinematography Department of the Lodz Film School (PWSFTviT in Łódź) with Józef Robakowski as the leader of the group. Next to Permafo, FFW introduced conceptual art based on new media, such as experimental film and photography, in Poland.
• The Tak Gallery (the Yes Gallery) was founded by Leszek Przyjemski (at the beginning together with Anastazy Wiśniewski). An early and the most radical example of a gallery as a work of conceptual art.
• Galleries-art projects were founded: the Pi Gallery in Kraków (by Maria Anna Potocka in her private apartment), the Address Gallery in Łodź (by Ewa Partum, first in an artists’ club and next in her private apartment), the 80×140 Gallery in Łódź (by Jerzy Treliński together with Andrzej Pierzgalski in an artists’ club), which was the most radical one, operating on a board of the indicated size. Andrzej Pierzgalski’s A4 Gallery of the size of a sheet of paper was nested in it.
• Zbigniew Warpechowski created his first performance art pieces based on the principles of conceptualism.
• Działania lokalne (Local activities) was the first contextual art project realized in the countryside, in the Kurpie region in Poland, by Jan Świdziński together with the group from the artist-run Recent Art Gallery from Wrocław.
• The CDN art festival in Warsaw was held in an urban space (under the bridge over the Vistula River). Twenty-two galleries and six groups were invited to participate.
• The Body and Performance international festival of performance art was held at the Labirynt Gallery in Lublin. The festival was smaller than IAM but confirmed the leading position of performance art on the Polish contemporary art scene.
• The Exchange Gallery was founded by Józef Robakowski and Małgorzata Potocka in their private apartment in Łódź. The gallery’s activity was based on extensive international contacts that enabled the co-creation of the Infermental project (works distributed on VHS videotapes). It also operated as an archive and library.
The Eighties
• 70 – 80. Nowe zjawiska w sztuce polskiej (70-80. New Phenomena in Polish Art), organised by Józef Robakowski and Witosław Czerwonka, took place at the BWA Gallery in Sopot. Thirty-five galleries from Poland were invited. The peak development moment of the conceptual gallery movement.
• The first edition of Konstrukcja w procesie (Construction in Process) was held in Łódź. Fifty-four artists from all over the world participated. The international section was curated by Ryszard Waśko and the Polish one by Antoni Mikołajczyk. A documentary film was made by Józef Robakowski. It was the largest event of the ARI type organized by the FFW milieu, which proved the power of the unofficial art institution and its broad international contacts.
• IX Spotkania krakowskie (9th Kraków Meetings) was an annual event of local importance that in that year became a manifestation of contemporary art. It was curated by the artist Maria Pinińska-Bereś and the art critic Andrzej Kostołowski (forty artists participated).
• In June, the Strych Gallery (the Attic Gallery) was established in Łódź. It was the first artist-run place after the break caused by the imposition of martial law on December 13, 1981. It operated until 1985 during the most severe phase of the military rule in Poland as an art center of conceptual and new media art, and action art practices.
• 1st Biennial of New Art in Zielona Góra at the BWA Gallery. Over seventy artists from Poland participated. A new generation of artists appeared, merging a post-conceptual form with new expression painterly artworks. It was the first large-scale presentation of art in a public institution after the activity break caused by the imposition of martial law.
• In the aftermath of the Biennial, the po Gallery, nested in the BWA Gallery, was founded (Wojciech Kozłowski and Leszek Krutulski). The gallery programme was very mixed and mostly contained various installations and performances forms, painterly new expression style included.
• The Wyspa Gallery (the Island Gallery) was founded in Gdańsk by Grzegorz Klaman, an artist and academic professor. Initially, it was an affiliated gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk (until 2002), next it moved to other locations in the defunct Gdańsk Shipyard (until 2016), which then became a home for many artist-run initiatives.
• The WRO Festival was founded by Piotr Krajewski and Violetta Krajewska in Wrocław. WRO is an acronym from Wizualne Realizacje Okołomuzyczne (Music-Related Visual Art Realisations). It was an international new media festival dedicated to video, interactive installations, digital art, and art and technology-based projects.
The Nineties
• The international art festival Fort Sztuki (The Fort of Art) was established in Kraków and operated until 2005. Its originator and founder was Artur Tajber, a performer. Various forms of site-specific art were developed.
The Two-thousands
• Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej (MSN) (the Museum of Modern Art) in Warsaw was first opened in a temporary building. The new building is still under construction (2022). Previously, contemporary art was collected by Muzeum Narodowe (the National Museum) in Warsaw and the collection is still there.
• The Centre of Contemporary Art (COCA) with a collection of contemporary art was opened in Toruń.
• Muzeum Współczesne Wrocław (MWW) (Wroclaw Contemporary Museum) was opened in Wrocław. Previously, contemporary art was collected by Muzeum Narodowe (the National Museum) in Wroclaw, and the collection is still there.
• Cricoteka, the museum and archive of Tadeusz Kantor, was opened in Kraków.
• The Archive of the Kraków Group was donated to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (MOCAK).
(compiled by Łukasz Guzek)