EN
'The Group of Five', many years later dubbed the Nowa Huta Group, was one of a few such groups, social-artistic in character, that sprang up in Cracow after World War II. Its members were Danuta Urbanowicz, Witold Urbanowicz, Jerzy Wronski, Julian Jonczyk, and Janusz Tarabula. In addition, Barbara Kwasniewska, Lucjan Mianowski, and Jerzy Kalucki participated in five of the Group's shows. What basically bonded these young artists was the atmosphere in their common studio at the Cracow Academy as well as their desire to oppose the hither-to-obtaining standards and models, above all Socialist Realism and Colourism. Among the functions which at that time were ascribed to avant-garde formations their expansive activity came into prominence. However, in the case of the group discussed here this factor was manifestly ignored - their exhibitions never went beyond their milieu, art critics did not keep pace with them, and the older artists from the Cracow Group, engaged in their mounting, were not particularly keen on backing up the activities of another, not self-reliant formation. As a result, the artists of what after many years came to be called the Nowa Huta Group, in its origins going back to 1956, in March 1961 joined the Cracow Group. The postulate dominating the group's programme laid down on the occasion of the II Group Show was to enrich the painter's materials. Each artist approached the problem differently, but all of them unanimously repudiated the interpretation of their creations solely from their formal and aesthetical aspects. Among the major ideological threads running through matter painting created by the representatives of this formation the problem of anamnesis comes to the fore, chiefly relating to their childhood experience and to visual impressions from the places of particular importance to the artists. In addition to artistic fascinations, it is worth noting their idea of creation in Cracow of a new cultural periodical entitled 'Sketches', of which a single number came out in February 1956, and also their participation in the productions of the 'Widzimisie' (Whim) Puppet Theatre in Nowa Huta from the end of 1957 to May 1960.