Books & Edited by Marek Maksymczak
PL:
Właśnie ukazała się książka o grupie Wprost. Książka, poświęcona twórczości krakowskiej grup... more PL:
Właśnie ukazała się książka o grupie Wprost. Książka, poświęcona twórczości krakowskiej grupy Wprost, sprzeciwia się obecnym tendencjom badawczym, które skupiają się na analizie wyłącznie awangardowych zjawisk w polskiej sztuce po 1945 roku. Członkowie grupy – Maciej Bieniasz, Zbylut Grzywacz, Barbara Skąpska, Leszek Sobocki i Jacek Waltoś – począwszy od lat 60. znacznie przyczynili się do rozwoju sztuki figuratywnej o krytycznym przesłaniu. Autor przybliża ich najcenniejsze dzieła komentujące przełomowe momenty w historii PRL-u: Marzec ’68, Grudzień ’70, Czerwiec ’76 i Sierpień ’80. Publikacja zwraca uwagę na transgresywność założeń grupy Wprost wobec świata artystycznego i przede wszystkim politycznego. Omawia relacje zespołu z krytyką artystyczną i władzą komunistyczną, naświetla metody represji tajnych służb oraz skalę ich oddziaływania na powstałe między grupą a środowiskiem twórczym kontakty. Akcentuje również problem gry artystów z cenzurą, którą Wprostowcy stosowali nie tylko podczas realizacji dzieł, lecz również budowy własnych ekspozycji. Poza kontekstualnym spojrzeniem na twórczość Wprost, uwzględniającym stosunek twórców wobec komunistycznej propagandy, sztuki awangardowej oraz kultury niezależnej, autor prezentuje wnikliwą analizę poszczególnych dzieł, które wybrano ze względu na pozycję artystyczną, semantyczną wielowymiarowość i złożoną metaforykę. Dzięki temu książka polemizuje z powszechną opinią dostrzegającą w pracach grupy Wprost łatwą publicystykę i banalną antykomunistyczną agitację.
EN:
This dissertation is devoted to the output of the Kraków-based art group “Wprost” [“Directly”], active in the years 1966–1986. Its members were Maciej Bieniasz, Zbylut Grzywacz, Barbara Skąpska, Leszek Sobocki and Jacek Waltoś. The group’s recuperation of figurative art in the mid-1960s broke the dominance of abstract poetics that reigned in Poland from 1956. At the same time, the artists associated with this group intensively explored the representation of human figures, independently developing a new quality in figurative art, as a result of which the group’s members are acknowledged today as pioneers of new figurative art in Poland.
Taking Andrzej Wróblewski’s achievements as an artistic model, they questioned formalism and re-introduced the kind of art that is not concerned solely with artistic issues, but is thematic, critical, existential, as well as politically and socially engaged. Members of the group would criticise the political system but nevertheless gave up gainful employment in favour of work for the party. In this way, they became aware of how artists as such are entangled in political mechanisms...
Nowa Figuracja. Leszek Sobocki, red. M. Maksymczak, Warszawa 2016 / New Figuration. Leszek Sobocki, ed. M. Maksymczak, Warsaw 2016. CAŁA KSIĄŻKA DOSTĘPNA NA / FULL BOOK AVAILABLE FROM: http://nowafiguracja.com/index.php/portfolio/wystawy-i-recenzje/ , 2016
Leszek Sobocki is representative of new figuration art in Poland. The book presents his art of th... more Leszek Sobocki is representative of new figuration art in Poland. The book presents his art of the 60s and 70s of the twentieth century. At that time Sobocki criticizes communist establishment and abstract art and op-art.
Exhibition Catalogues by Marek Maksymczak
Modzelewski. A Country on the Vistula River = Modzelewski. Kraj nad Wisłą, ed./ red. M. Skierski, Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski w Warszawie, Warszawa 2022, p. 27-39. ISBN 978-83-67203-02-9, 2022
The article seeks to analyse Jarosław Modzelewski’s painting through the prism of the postcolonia... more The article seeks to analyse Jarosław Modzelewski’s painting through the prism of the postcolonial discourse. Hailing from a country stretched between the East and West, he engages in a dialogue with the various ideologies influencing Polish art and culture. The first of those is Socialist Realism, which is brilliantly contested in Modzelewski’s paintings. The second is the Poles’ postcolonial identity. According to Marek Maksymczak, the image of the citizen emerging from Modzelewski’s work reveals an individual lost both in the Communist reality of the 1980s and in the post-transition Poland with its ambivalent attitude towards the West.
Większy niż szafa / Bigger than a wardrobe, ed. Maciek Duchowski, Warsaw , 2018
Contemporary Polish painting from Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
Exhibition catalogue: Większy ... more Contemporary Polish painting from Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
Exhibition catalogue: Większy niż szafa / Bigger than a wardrobe, ed. Maciek Duchowski, publisher: Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Warsaw 2018, p. 184. In Polish and English.
ISBN: 978-83-66098-18-3
Salon Academy Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw,
March 2-23, 2018
Artists: Paweł Bołtryk Heban, Maciek Duchowski, Arkadiusz Karapuda,
Janusz Oskar Knorowski, Tomasz Milanowski, Jan Mioduszewski
Wystawa prac Arkadiusza Karapudy "Słowa i obrazy" to nowa próba połączenia tekstu z plastycznym p... more Wystawa prac Arkadiusza Karapudy "Słowa i obrazy" to nowa próba połączenia tekstu z plastycznym przedstawieniem. Napięcie między werbalnym a malarskim komentarzem odgrywa tu pierwszorzędna rolę, dzięki czemu kompozycje zyskują na semantycznej wielowymiarowości / Arkadiusz Karapuda, Słowa i obrazy, Galeria Sztuki Wystawa, Warszawa, 29.09 - 20.10.2019 r.
Stanisław Baj. Czarna rzeka w Galerii Bardzo Białej / Stanisław Baj. Black River at Bardzo Biała Gallery, Warszawa 2017, Mar 24, 2017
Article from the catalogue of the exhibition "Stanisław Baj. Black River at Bardzo Biała Gallery".
Exhibitions by Marek Maksymczak
Przewodnik po wystawie "Większy niż szafa".
Galeria Salon Akademii ASP w Warszawie
2-23 marca 2... more Przewodnik po wystawie "Większy niż szafa".
Galeria Salon Akademii ASP w Warszawie
2-23 marca 2018 r.
Artyści: Paweł Bołtryk Heban, Maciek Duchowski,
Arkadiusz Karapuda, Janusz Oskar Knorowski,
Tomasz Milanowski, Jan Mioduszewski
Brochure to the exhibition "Bigger than a wardrobe"
Salon Academy Gallery of the Academy of Fin... more Brochure to the exhibition "Bigger than a wardrobe"
Salon Academy Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw,
March 2-23, 2018
Artists: Paweł Bołtryk Heban, Maciek Duchowski, Arkadiusz Karapuda,
Janusz Oskar Knorowski, Tomasz Milanowski, Jan Mioduszewski
Journal Articles & Book Chapters by Marek Maksymczak
Wróblewski i po… Sztuka realizmu bezpośredniego = Wróblewski and After. Art of Direct Realism, red./ed. M. Kozieł, M. Lachowski, Muzeum Narodowe w Lublinie, Lublin 2023, 121-146, 2023
The article deals with the painting tradition of Andrzej Wróblewski, who was one of the best-know... more The article deals with the painting tradition of Andrzej Wróblewski, who was one of the best-known painters of 20th century Polish art. The traditional perspective of "influenceology", according to which an earlier artist influences later generations of artists, is reversed in this article. It is the art of later artists that influenced the image of Wróblewski's work. Thus, the relationship between Wróblewski's paintings and the art of later artists is considered within the "preposterous" perspective proposed by Mieke Bal.
Quart. Kwartalnik Instytutu Historii Sztuki Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego = Quart. Quarterly of Art History Institute at the Univeristy of Wrocław, 2010
In 1982 Zbylut Grzywacz, as a member of an artistic group „Wprost”, made a project of a drawing o... more In 1982 Zbylut Grzywacz, as a member of an artistic group „Wprost”, made a project of a drawing of Monument of a Polish Mother. The artist presented the Polish Mother as an elderly woman exhausted by committing trivial and everyday’s activities. At the same time Grzywacz was working on an oil painting – a triptych titled „A Queue. Seven stages of a woman’s life”, which he ironically called „The Monument of a Polish Mother”, as well. The work shows six naked women silhouettes and a baby. Each of the women holds a carrier bag in her hands. The silhouettes look like they are moving and going forward from the left to the right side. The painting depicts a human getting old as the artist says that it has come into being because of ‘his own feeling of the passing time’. On the one hand, the work as the title suggests: „The Queue”, as well as the fact of giving it an ironical name: „The Monument of a Polish Mother”, presents a difficult situation of a woman, or to be more general, a human living in a totalitarian country what was present in the twentieth century history of Polish country. On the other hand, the second part of the painting’s title, namely, „Seven stages of a woman’s life” implies that the work may be connected with universal problems of people’s lives.
The aim of my paper is to point out that the work deals with a topic which is far from historic dimension, what has been showed by the means of a visual metaphor. In contrary to the above mentioned project of the drawing we will not find any national symbols in it. Although, the painting’s title describes the queues which were common in the Communist Poland, the work gives a rather general answer, which is void of presenting a certain place or some particular events. Such an artistic trick may be treated as the example of painting presenting reality more significantly. The painter’s metaphor used here, depicts the secret of human existence.
Biuletyn Historii Sztuki = Art History Bulletin, 2020
The series of lino prints titled "Warning Signs", executed by the Cracow artist Leszek Sobocki in... more The series of lino prints titled "Warning Signs", executed by the Cracow artist Leszek Sobocki in 1968-71 and made up of 21 compositions is discussed. As seen against the output of other Polish artists of the time, the linocuts can be judged as thoroughly analysed comments, not merely registering the grim everyday realities of Communist Poland, but also tackling pivotal moments marking Communism crises. The "Warning Signs" make reference to the student revolt in March 1968 and the workers' protests in December 1970. The series has been discussed in the context of two other Sobocki's works: "Wrapping" (1968) and "A Day in the Life of a Shipyard Worker" (1971) which permit the Author to outline the genealogy of the "Warning Signs" and place them precisely within the artist's output.
Krytyka artystyczna kobiet. Sztuka w perspektywie kobiecego doświadczenia XIX - XXI wieku, red. Beata Łazarz, Joanna M. Sosnowska, Instytut Sztuki PAN, Warszawa, 2019
This article examines Urszula Czartoryska’s critical review titled “Wyczekiwanie...” [“Looking fo... more This article examines Urszula Czartoryska’s critical review titled “Wyczekiwanie...” [“Looking forward...”], which provides commentary to two art exhibitions: “Młodzi malarze Krakowa” [“Young painters from Kraków”], organized in Kraków’s Pałac Sztuki [Palace of Arts] in April 1965, and “Ogólnopolska Wystawa Młodego Malarstwa” [“All-Polish Exhibition of New Painting”], which opened one month later in Sopot. Both exhibitions served for her as a point of departure for writing an article commenting on the current situation in Polish painting. According to Czartoryska, it leaned too heavily on colourism and abstraction. This would lead to a serious crisis in painting, which manifested in the artists’ growing distance towards figurative art and socio-political subjects. This distancing tendency would be rooted in the fresh memory of the socialrealist trauma, which effectively precluded any engagement with figurative art otherwise than by falling in line with the policy of the communist party. Among the critics reviewing the two exhibitions, Urszula Czartoryska was the only one to propose returning to the kind of figurative art that would tackle subjects beyond art itself. It soon turned out that the article “Wyczekiwanie...” successfully acted as a rejoinder to these shows, actually influencing the later decisions of individual artists. One year after its publishing, five artists from Kraków, who participated in the exhibition “Młodzi malarze Krakowa” – Maciej Bieniasz, Zbylut Grzywacz, Barbara Skąpska, Leszek Sobocki and Jacek Waltoś – founded the group “Wprost” [“Directly”], which set as its goal to comment on the “here and now” by employing a figurative language that would be accessible – as the artists argued – to the average recipient.
In this paper, the review “Wyczekiwanie...” is juxtaposed with Czartoryska’s 1974 book Od pop-artu do sztuki konceptualnej [From pop art to conceptualism], in which she broadly discusses selected trends that emerged in Western art in the late 1950s. In the last chapter, titled “Artysta zaangażowany” [“Engaged artist”], she acknowledges the dissent that swelled among French and American artists at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, who would rebel against the structures of capitalist power. In this context, one could also ask to what extent her commentary could be an allusion to the political and artistic situation in Poland at the time. Numerous protests were held then, while some of Leszek Sobocki’s works criticizing the communist authorities were removed from exhibitions by the censorship. It seems that Czartoryska was describing the dissenting attitude of Western artists in order to emphasize the lack of such an approach in Polish art. This was particularly visible at the time when the dramatic events of March 1968 and December 1970 demanded in vain to be expressed in art. Naturally, the author was perfectly aware of the censorship, but she also might have wanted to draw attention to this issue and try to address it in a way that would be possible under totalitarian rule.
Miesięcznik "Znak" , 2008
Kultura bez cenzury (?), red. J. Czaplińska, A. Modelska-Kwaśniowska, Opole 2010, s. 123-130. / Culture without censorship (?), ed. J. Czaplińska, A. Modelska-Kwaśniowska, Opole 2010, p. 123-130., 2010
This paper presents an analysis of a few paintings by Leszek Sobocki, one of the co-founders as w... more This paper presents an analysis of a few paintings by Leszek Sobocki, one of the co-founders as well as a member of cracovian group "Wprost" [Directly] in Poland. The group, since 1966, had been creating various pieces of art and had tried to steer clear of artistic censorship omnipresent in comunist Poland. Sobocki's paintings significantly contributed to the development of independent culture in the 1980s. The aim of this article is to present changes in Sobocki's artistic attitude, who, after several years of his work in "Wprost", had perceived that his and the other co-founders mission of an artist, using his work to fight against communist structure in order to protect society, had not brought the expected effects, which finally caused spontaneous dissolution of the group in 1986.
"Opolski Rocznik Muzealny", vol. 21, 2015
One of the greatest of Maciej Bieniasz’s pictures depicts a small city square in an unknow city. ... more One of the greatest of Maciej Bieniasz’s pictures depicts a small city square in an unknow city. The picture is undated and untitled, but we know that the author made it between 1974-1976. In the middle of the picture we can see a poster "Party" by Włodzimerz Zakrzewski, presented on a high board. This is a propagandist poster, which presents a helmsman holding a helm. This is a visual metaphor of chief role Communist Party. Under the poster, on the sidewalk and close to curb, are situated a canister, bricks, a banner or a flag. Probably this is a view at square after a riot and it says that Bieniasz probably made this picture in June 1976 or after this month. In Poland it was a time of politics demonstrations of workers in Radom and Ursus. There is also presented a high wall of bricks around this square. Above it, on the left side of the picture you can see few grey buildings. On the right side there is a house under construction. All of this, especially the close space around the poster it looks like a prison yard and the high board looks like watchtower. It seems to be close to idea of Panopticon by Jeremy Bentham, explained by Michel Foucault. We may assume that the artist wanted to say that our daily reality in a communist country is the reality of prison.
Biuletyn Historii Sztuki = Art History Bulletin, 2010
The subject of this article are the depictions of chauffeurs by painter Andrzej Wróblewski. A col... more The subject of this article are the depictions of chauffeurs by painter Andrzej Wróblewski. A collection of these works arose between 1948 and 1956. The most famous of the picture comprising the cycle are two oil paintings titled "The Blue Chauffeur" ("Szofer niebieski"), dating from 1948 and "The Chauffeur" ("Szofer") of 1956. The enormous popularity of both studies, comprising alongside the series "Executed by Firing Squad" ("Rozstrzeliwani") the most frequently reproduced of the artist works, to some extent led to the presentations in gouache and watercolour of the same artist's drivers.
Therefore Wróblewski repeats the motive of a chauffeur using techniques that are different than oil, achieving a significant modification of the driver motive, a modification that corresponds to the overall significance of his works, famous for the diverse media selection. Together with the change of the oil technique for gouache and watercolor the message of the works changes too. This should not be interpreted as a semantic inconsistence between the particular works, but rather as a conversion that takes place in terms of a mutual dialogue, binding the individual statements together.
The "chauffeurs" convey the problem of how to remove the subjectless compositions from the figural scenes – a mechanism aimed at making the pictured reality “more real”. The process begins by an unnatural composition: “The Blue Chauffeur”, and leads to the realistic work of “The Chaffeur in the city” ("Szofer w mieście"). From this perspective the gouache technique attracts a special attention, given that it constitutes a statement that develops and fulfills the issues presented by the author on canvas.
Kwartalnik Rzeźby Orońsko = Sculpture Quarterly Orońsko, 2009
Kwartalnik Rzeźby Orońsko = Sculpture Quaterly Orońsko , 2008
Kwartalnik Rzeźby Orońsko = Sculpture Quarterly Orońsko, 2010
Kwartalnik Rzeźby Orońsko = Sculpture Quarterly Orońsko, 2011
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Books & Edited by Marek Maksymczak
Właśnie ukazała się książka o grupie Wprost. Książka, poświęcona twórczości krakowskiej grupy Wprost, sprzeciwia się obecnym tendencjom badawczym, które skupiają się na analizie wyłącznie awangardowych zjawisk w polskiej sztuce po 1945 roku. Członkowie grupy – Maciej Bieniasz, Zbylut Grzywacz, Barbara Skąpska, Leszek Sobocki i Jacek Waltoś – począwszy od lat 60. znacznie przyczynili się do rozwoju sztuki figuratywnej o krytycznym przesłaniu. Autor przybliża ich najcenniejsze dzieła komentujące przełomowe momenty w historii PRL-u: Marzec ’68, Grudzień ’70, Czerwiec ’76 i Sierpień ’80. Publikacja zwraca uwagę na transgresywność założeń grupy Wprost wobec świata artystycznego i przede wszystkim politycznego. Omawia relacje zespołu z krytyką artystyczną i władzą komunistyczną, naświetla metody represji tajnych służb oraz skalę ich oddziaływania na powstałe między grupą a środowiskiem twórczym kontakty. Akcentuje również problem gry artystów z cenzurą, którą Wprostowcy stosowali nie tylko podczas realizacji dzieł, lecz również budowy własnych ekspozycji. Poza kontekstualnym spojrzeniem na twórczość Wprost, uwzględniającym stosunek twórców wobec komunistycznej propagandy, sztuki awangardowej oraz kultury niezależnej, autor prezentuje wnikliwą analizę poszczególnych dzieł, które wybrano ze względu na pozycję artystyczną, semantyczną wielowymiarowość i złożoną metaforykę. Dzięki temu książka polemizuje z powszechną opinią dostrzegającą w pracach grupy Wprost łatwą publicystykę i banalną antykomunistyczną agitację.
EN:
This dissertation is devoted to the output of the Kraków-based art group “Wprost” [“Directly”], active in the years 1966–1986. Its members were Maciej Bieniasz, Zbylut Grzywacz, Barbara Skąpska, Leszek Sobocki and Jacek Waltoś. The group’s recuperation of figurative art in the mid-1960s broke the dominance of abstract poetics that reigned in Poland from 1956. At the same time, the artists associated with this group intensively explored the representation of human figures, independently developing a new quality in figurative art, as a result of which the group’s members are acknowledged today as pioneers of new figurative art in Poland.
Taking Andrzej Wróblewski’s achievements as an artistic model, they questioned formalism and re-introduced the kind of art that is not concerned solely with artistic issues, but is thematic, critical, existential, as well as politically and socially engaged. Members of the group would criticise the political system but nevertheless gave up gainful employment in favour of work for the party. In this way, they became aware of how artists as such are entangled in political mechanisms...
Exhibition Catalogues by Marek Maksymczak
Exhibition catalogue: Większy niż szafa / Bigger than a wardrobe, ed. Maciek Duchowski, publisher: Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Warsaw 2018, p. 184. In Polish and English.
ISBN: 978-83-66098-18-3
Salon Academy Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw,
March 2-23, 2018
Artists: Paweł Bołtryk Heban, Maciek Duchowski, Arkadiusz Karapuda,
Janusz Oskar Knorowski, Tomasz Milanowski, Jan Mioduszewski
Exhibitions by Marek Maksymczak
Galeria Salon Akademii ASP w Warszawie
2-23 marca 2018 r.
Artyści: Paweł Bołtryk Heban, Maciek Duchowski,
Arkadiusz Karapuda, Janusz Oskar Knorowski,
Tomasz Milanowski, Jan Mioduszewski
Salon Academy Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw,
March 2-23, 2018
Artists: Paweł Bołtryk Heban, Maciek Duchowski, Arkadiusz Karapuda,
Janusz Oskar Knorowski, Tomasz Milanowski, Jan Mioduszewski
Journal Articles & Book Chapters by Marek Maksymczak
The aim of my paper is to point out that the work deals with a topic which is far from historic dimension, what has been showed by the means of a visual metaphor. In contrary to the above mentioned project of the drawing we will not find any national symbols in it. Although, the painting’s title describes the queues which were common in the Communist Poland, the work gives a rather general answer, which is void of presenting a certain place or some particular events. Such an artistic trick may be treated as the example of painting presenting reality more significantly. The painter’s metaphor used here, depicts the secret of human existence.
In this paper, the review “Wyczekiwanie...” is juxtaposed with Czartoryska’s 1974 book Od pop-artu do sztuki konceptualnej [From pop art to conceptualism], in which she broadly discusses selected trends that emerged in Western art in the late 1950s. In the last chapter, titled “Artysta zaangażowany” [“Engaged artist”], she acknowledges the dissent that swelled among French and American artists at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, who would rebel against the structures of capitalist power. In this context, one could also ask to what extent her commentary could be an allusion to the political and artistic situation in Poland at the time. Numerous protests were held then, while some of Leszek Sobocki’s works criticizing the communist authorities were removed from exhibitions by the censorship. It seems that Czartoryska was describing the dissenting attitude of Western artists in order to emphasize the lack of such an approach in Polish art. This was particularly visible at the time when the dramatic events of March 1968 and December 1970 demanded in vain to be expressed in art. Naturally, the author was perfectly aware of the censorship, but she also might have wanted to draw attention to this issue and try to address it in a way that would be possible under totalitarian rule.
Therefore Wróblewski repeats the motive of a chauffeur using techniques that are different than oil, achieving a significant modification of the driver motive, a modification that corresponds to the overall significance of his works, famous for the diverse media selection. Together with the change of the oil technique for gouache and watercolor the message of the works changes too. This should not be interpreted as a semantic inconsistence between the particular works, but rather as a conversion that takes place in terms of a mutual dialogue, binding the individual statements together.
The "chauffeurs" convey the problem of how to remove the subjectless compositions from the figural scenes – a mechanism aimed at making the pictured reality “more real”. The process begins by an unnatural composition: “The Blue Chauffeur”, and leads to the realistic work of “The Chaffeur in the city” ("Szofer w mieście"). From this perspective the gouache technique attracts a special attention, given that it constitutes a statement that develops and fulfills the issues presented by the author on canvas.
Właśnie ukazała się książka o grupie Wprost. Książka, poświęcona twórczości krakowskiej grupy Wprost, sprzeciwia się obecnym tendencjom badawczym, które skupiają się na analizie wyłącznie awangardowych zjawisk w polskiej sztuce po 1945 roku. Członkowie grupy – Maciej Bieniasz, Zbylut Grzywacz, Barbara Skąpska, Leszek Sobocki i Jacek Waltoś – począwszy od lat 60. znacznie przyczynili się do rozwoju sztuki figuratywnej o krytycznym przesłaniu. Autor przybliża ich najcenniejsze dzieła komentujące przełomowe momenty w historii PRL-u: Marzec ’68, Grudzień ’70, Czerwiec ’76 i Sierpień ’80. Publikacja zwraca uwagę na transgresywność założeń grupy Wprost wobec świata artystycznego i przede wszystkim politycznego. Omawia relacje zespołu z krytyką artystyczną i władzą komunistyczną, naświetla metody represji tajnych służb oraz skalę ich oddziaływania na powstałe między grupą a środowiskiem twórczym kontakty. Akcentuje również problem gry artystów z cenzurą, którą Wprostowcy stosowali nie tylko podczas realizacji dzieł, lecz również budowy własnych ekspozycji. Poza kontekstualnym spojrzeniem na twórczość Wprost, uwzględniającym stosunek twórców wobec komunistycznej propagandy, sztuki awangardowej oraz kultury niezależnej, autor prezentuje wnikliwą analizę poszczególnych dzieł, które wybrano ze względu na pozycję artystyczną, semantyczną wielowymiarowość i złożoną metaforykę. Dzięki temu książka polemizuje z powszechną opinią dostrzegającą w pracach grupy Wprost łatwą publicystykę i banalną antykomunistyczną agitację.
EN:
This dissertation is devoted to the output of the Kraków-based art group “Wprost” [“Directly”], active in the years 1966–1986. Its members were Maciej Bieniasz, Zbylut Grzywacz, Barbara Skąpska, Leszek Sobocki and Jacek Waltoś. The group’s recuperation of figurative art in the mid-1960s broke the dominance of abstract poetics that reigned in Poland from 1956. At the same time, the artists associated with this group intensively explored the representation of human figures, independently developing a new quality in figurative art, as a result of which the group’s members are acknowledged today as pioneers of new figurative art in Poland.
Taking Andrzej Wróblewski’s achievements as an artistic model, they questioned formalism and re-introduced the kind of art that is not concerned solely with artistic issues, but is thematic, critical, existential, as well as politically and socially engaged. Members of the group would criticise the political system but nevertheless gave up gainful employment in favour of work for the party. In this way, they became aware of how artists as such are entangled in political mechanisms...
Exhibition catalogue: Większy niż szafa / Bigger than a wardrobe, ed. Maciek Duchowski, publisher: Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Warsaw 2018, p. 184. In Polish and English.
ISBN: 978-83-66098-18-3
Salon Academy Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw,
March 2-23, 2018
Artists: Paweł Bołtryk Heban, Maciek Duchowski, Arkadiusz Karapuda,
Janusz Oskar Knorowski, Tomasz Milanowski, Jan Mioduszewski
Galeria Salon Akademii ASP w Warszawie
2-23 marca 2018 r.
Artyści: Paweł Bołtryk Heban, Maciek Duchowski,
Arkadiusz Karapuda, Janusz Oskar Knorowski,
Tomasz Milanowski, Jan Mioduszewski
Salon Academy Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw,
March 2-23, 2018
Artists: Paweł Bołtryk Heban, Maciek Duchowski, Arkadiusz Karapuda,
Janusz Oskar Knorowski, Tomasz Milanowski, Jan Mioduszewski
The aim of my paper is to point out that the work deals with a topic which is far from historic dimension, what has been showed by the means of a visual metaphor. In contrary to the above mentioned project of the drawing we will not find any national symbols in it. Although, the painting’s title describes the queues which were common in the Communist Poland, the work gives a rather general answer, which is void of presenting a certain place or some particular events. Such an artistic trick may be treated as the example of painting presenting reality more significantly. The painter’s metaphor used here, depicts the secret of human existence.
In this paper, the review “Wyczekiwanie...” is juxtaposed with Czartoryska’s 1974 book Od pop-artu do sztuki konceptualnej [From pop art to conceptualism], in which she broadly discusses selected trends that emerged in Western art in the late 1950s. In the last chapter, titled “Artysta zaangażowany” [“Engaged artist”], she acknowledges the dissent that swelled among French and American artists at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, who would rebel against the structures of capitalist power. In this context, one could also ask to what extent her commentary could be an allusion to the political and artistic situation in Poland at the time. Numerous protests were held then, while some of Leszek Sobocki’s works criticizing the communist authorities were removed from exhibitions by the censorship. It seems that Czartoryska was describing the dissenting attitude of Western artists in order to emphasize the lack of such an approach in Polish art. This was particularly visible at the time when the dramatic events of March 1968 and December 1970 demanded in vain to be expressed in art. Naturally, the author was perfectly aware of the censorship, but she also might have wanted to draw attention to this issue and try to address it in a way that would be possible under totalitarian rule.
Therefore Wróblewski repeats the motive of a chauffeur using techniques that are different than oil, achieving a significant modification of the driver motive, a modification that corresponds to the overall significance of his works, famous for the diverse media selection. Together with the change of the oil technique for gouache and watercolor the message of the works changes too. This should not be interpreted as a semantic inconsistence between the particular works, but rather as a conversion that takes place in terms of a mutual dialogue, binding the individual statements together.
The "chauffeurs" convey the problem of how to remove the subjectless compositions from the figural scenes – a mechanism aimed at making the pictured reality “more real”. The process begins by an unnatural composition: “The Blue Chauffeur”, and leads to the realistic work of “The Chaffeur in the city” ("Szofer w mieście"). From this perspective the gouache technique attracts a special attention, given that it constitutes a statement that develops and fulfills the issues presented by the author on canvas.