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The Borderlines of the Thaw: Graphic Art from the Federal Republic of Germany in Warsaw’s “Exhibition Factory” (1956–1957)

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Świtek G.

Biuletyn Historii Sztuki

2020

vol. 82

issue 1

127-158

Celem artykułu jest zarysowanie politycznych i artystycznych kontekstów dwóch wystaw grafiki z Niemiec Zachodnich, które zostały zaprezentowane w Centralnym Biurze Wystaw Artystycznych w Warszawie w latach 1956–1957. Historycy uznają rok 1956 – podobnie jak 1968 czy 1989 – za znaczącą cezurę czasową, rok przełomowy w globalnej historii politycznej i społecznej. W historii polskiej sztuki nowoczesnej rok 1956 jest również postrzegany jako czas istotny dla przemian w życiu artystycznym – czas Odwilży. Jako pierwsza wystawa sztuki z Niemiec Zachodnich w powojennej Polsce, Wystawa prac grafików z Niemieckiej Republiki Federalnej została otwarta w Warszawie w tym samym dniu, w którym w Moskwie Nikita Chruszczow przedstawił swój słynny „tajny referat” (25 lutego 1956). Wystawę Plakat NRF zorganizowano w CBWA w 1957 r., po wydarzeniach Polskiego Października ’56. Zestawienie wystaw sztuki z politycznymi wydarzeniami tego okresu wpisuje się w refleksję nad zjawiskami równoczesności i nierównoczesności, rozpoznanymi przez filozofów historii, a także w refleksję nad heterogeniczną naturą wizualnego czasu historii wystaw.

The aim of the essay is to delineate the political and artistic contexts of two exhibitions of graphic art from the Federal Republic of Germany held in the Central Bureau of Art Exhibitions, the main state art gallery in Warsaw (1956–1957). The historians consider the year 1956 – similarly to the years 1968 or 1989 – to be an important caesura in the political and social history on the global scale. In the history of modern art in Poland, the year 1956 is also perceived as a period crucial to changes in artistic life (Polish thaw). As the first show of West German artists in post-war Poland, the Exhibition of the Works of Graphic Artists from the Federal Republic of Germany opened in Warsaw on the same day when Nikita Khrushchev delivered his celebrated “Secret Speech” in Moscow (25 February 1956). The exhibition Poster Art in the Federal Republic of Germany was organized in 1957, after the events of the Polish October (1956). The idea to juxtapose art exhibitions with political events of their era follows contemporary reflections on the phenomenon of noncontemporaneity and on the heterogeneous nature of the visual time of art and exhibition histories.

Across Borders and Art Histories: Travelling Exhibitions

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Świtek G.

Artium Quaestiones

2024

issue 35

55-82

The concept of art geography is undergoing a process of revision in light of recent research on exhibition histories. The analysis of major perennial art exhibitions is conducted in relation to the spatial, global structures of social and economic life, or as an aspect of tourism geographies. The geography of art exhibitions entails mapping circulation, analysing the spatial and temporal conditions under which art is presented, and the identifying cultural boundaries in the reception of travelling artworks. This article examines the circulation of international exhibitions that were presented at the Central Bureau of Art Exhibitions (CBAE) in Warsaw as part of cultural diplomacy i the 1970s. During this decade, the CBAE gallery hosted exhibitions of contemporary art from twenty-one countries. What kind of foreign art was seen at the state-organised exhibitions in Warsaw depended on global geopolitics. The primary case study is the exhibition Contemporary Indian Art from the Collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, which was toured from New Delhi through the Middle East to Eastern Europe (including Warsaw and Prague) in 1978–79. The exhibition brought together 100 works by 80 artists, created between the 1920s and 1970s. It included paintings by pioneers of modern and contemporary Indian art, such as Jamini Roy, Amrita Sher-Gil, Rabindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore, and K.C.S. Paniker. The diplomatic circumstances of organising the exhibition in Warsaw are set in the broader context of the Polish-Indian art exchange since the 1950s. This encompasses Poland’s participation in the New Delhi Triennial (established in 1968) and the completion of the modernist building of the Polish Embassy in New Delhi (1978). Furthermore, the article examines the impact of travelling national exhibitions on fostering intercultural understanding. The Contemporary Indian Art exhibition provided a valuable opportunity to transcend the conventional boundaries of Indian and Polish art histories. While in the 1960s and 1970s Polish academic discourse typically concluded the history of Indian art in the 1910s, the exhibition’s catalogue served as the primary source of information on twentieth-century Indian art. Consequently, the reception of Contemporary Indian Art in Warsaw is contextualised within the broader discourse of global art history and postcolonial studies.

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The Borderlines of the Thaw: Graphic Art from the Federal Republic of Germany in Warsaw’s “Exhibition Factory” (1956–1957)

Across Borders and Art Histories: Travelling Exhibitions