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DOI Artikel:Piotrowski, Piotr: Totalitarianism and Modernism: the "thaw" and informel painting in central Europe, 1955 - 1965
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28185#0163
TOTALITARIANISM AND MODERNISM: THE “THAW” AND INFORMEL PAINTING IN CENTRAL EUROPE
161
remarks refer to the early sixties, Lahoda’s thesis about the “moderate-
ness” of Czech modernism becomes somewhat more tenable.
At that time the art of no Central European country could be called
radical. Nonetheless, as far as the early examples of the critique of mo-
25. Cestmir Janosek, Bez nazvu, 1958-1959 [private collection]
dernism are concerned, a sériés of works of the Polish artist Wîodzimierz
Borowski from the late fifties, called “Artons” evidently deserves some
attention. Borowski’s “Artons” were indeed quite unique. The earliest
ones - oval objects made of glass, mirrors, néon lamps, and bicycle
wheels - ironically challenged the solemnity of the visual [il. 29], They
were constructed at the moment when the informel enjoyed a high status
both in Poland and Czechoslovakia, since it was identified with the most
radical idea of painting rejecting the socialist realism. In such a context,
Borowski ridiculed the solemnity of the painting and the prestige of pic-
torialism. In place of the aesthetics and pathos of paint, and the collage
of the matter, he put objects taken out of everyday life - a néon lamp and
161
remarks refer to the early sixties, Lahoda’s thesis about the “moderate-
ness” of Czech modernism becomes somewhat more tenable.
At that time the art of no Central European country could be called
radical. Nonetheless, as far as the early examples of the critique of mo-
25. Cestmir Janosek, Bez nazvu, 1958-1959 [private collection]
dernism are concerned, a sériés of works of the Polish artist Wîodzimierz
Borowski from the late fifties, called “Artons” evidently deserves some
attention. Borowski’s “Artons” were indeed quite unique. The earliest
ones - oval objects made of glass, mirrors, néon lamps, and bicycle
wheels - ironically challenged the solemnity of the visual [il. 29], They
were constructed at the moment when the informel enjoyed a high status
both in Poland and Czechoslovakia, since it was identified with the most
radical idea of painting rejecting the socialist realism. In such a context,
Borowski ridiculed the solemnity of the painting and the prestige of pic-
torialism. In place of the aesthetics and pathos of paint, and the collage
of the matter, he put objects taken out of everyday life - a néon lamp and