The end of the Great War created multiple patronage opportunities, organized and distributed by the state. The development of modern art deepened art critics’ pejorative view on allegory, but this type of work still supported legitimacy of the reborn state, the achievements of Polish propaganda abroad and consolidation of the patriotic tradition. The interwar era was the time when the majority of the significant official decoration was created, by artists of modern art and even avant-garde artists. Twelve projects were qualified to the final stage of competition aimed at selecting the paintings to be placed in Sejm (House of Parliament). Zofia Stryjenska, Stanislaw Kaczor Batowski, Wlastimil Hofman, Stanislaw Gajewski, and Jan Wydra, just to name a few, took part in this contest. Two first prizes were awarded to Ludomir Slendzinski and Jozef Mehoffer, two second ones to Kazimierz Sichulski and Bronislaw Bartel. The winning works have been criticized as failing to comply with the official character of the interior. Even repetition of the competition was proposed. Finally the paintings have not been created. Between 1929 and 1938 amateur painter Antoni Tanski (1874–1943) created a painting of Polonia for the hall of the Sejm; the painting is currently located in the Jasna Gora Monastery in Czestochowa. Competition for the paintings for the hall of the Sejm underlined the value of allegory in updating the historical narration. By referring to the centuries-old tradition of performances, fear of regained independence and the new political and social organization of the Second Republic of Poland was expressed.
The text constitutes a reference to the article on applying social realism discourse in pop-art and modern popular culture (“Ars inter Culturas” 5 (2016): 209-239) and an elaboration by means of including Ukrainian art. It reminds about Ukrainian artists’ contribution to the development of the avant garde of the first half of 20th century and social realism ideas of involvement, “growing of art into” life as well as its presence in various areas of social practice. It also recalls the mediatory role of Władysław Strzemiński between Russian and Polish avant garde. Furthermore, on the basis of examples the author analyses formal strategies adopted from avant garde by the output of social realism, points to iconographic patterns of Ukrainian works from which Polish artists got inspiration according to their programme and critics’ recommendations. Also, differences resulting from the relations between patternmutation are important, as well as the duration of the doctrine which was in force from the first half of the 30s to the end of the 80s of the 20th century in Russia while in Poland in the years of 1949/50-1954/55. In both countries, it had important but different consequences, which results in different attitudes to realism as a general artistic strategy. Contemporary communication and globalisation processes have led to standardisation of visual language also in post-soviet countries, and internet memes play a significant role in it. In the world of the Internet, the elements of social realism discourse become memes detached from old meanings, lose their historical and political sense, become an element of entertaining exoticism which enhances forgetting about an oppressive character of the doctrine which, especially in Ukraine, has led not only to the exclusion but also to the extermination of artists.
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