DOI issue:
Rozprawy
DOI article:Pawlak, Piotr: Wprost? O polskiej figuracji lat sześćdziesiątych i siedemdziesiątych
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29067#0127
WPROST? O POLSKIEJ FIGURACJI LAT SZEŚĆDZIESIĄTYCH I SIEDEMDZIESIĄTYCH
125
though the official press was fuli of appeals for the engaged and humanistic art, the
“Wprost” painters who wanted to bring to the foreground the problems of modern
man were never officially appreciated. Maybe that was because they saw those
problems in too intense light, while the dangers were recognized on the wrong “side.”
Their diagnosis of the sources of danger inherent in the political system itself could
not be approved by the authorities at all, which was why the official Exhibitions of
the Realistic Painting never included any of the most poignant works of the “Wprost”
members. The paintings which madę explicit comments on current social problems
were shown very carefully.
When the reviewers of the exhibitions occasionally rebuked artists for no sense
of engagement, in fact they used ironie tropes and phrases instead of expressing
genuine discomfort with the situation. When they expected art to start a rebellion, it
was supposed to be “mild” and safe for the political status quo. When they wanted
painters to deal with problems, those were the problems easy to control and subject
to a specific interpretation.
Many critics who evaluated the neo-figurative paintings used the positive crite-
rion of their avant-garde character. The morę innovative, original, and uniąue the
artistic approach happened to be, the better was the artwork. That was in fact an
element of tactics which aimed at shifting the focus of the debate from the artistic
objects to the idiom of artistic expression, so that the “content” could be safely ig-
nored. The slogans of modernity were used to make the public believe that Polish art
was participating in the evolution of the international avant-garde, while on the
other hand they were to make it “familiar” or, as Andrzej Turowski has put it, make
it “socialist” in expression. The new figuration was approached as the “art of the
present day” - something current, innovative, and fashionable. Under such circum-
stances it was not difficult to neglect the issues which determined the message of
that art, both actual and intended by the painters.
It is interesting that the “familiarization” of the neo-figuration did not consist in
some sort of direct interference with the content or in imposing of the rules of form,
which was the case in the times of the socialist realism, but only through clever ma-
nipulation. Never trying to influence the subject matter, the authorities did every-
thing to stimulate in the new figuration those currents which remained distant from
politics. Thus, the reception of that trend was indeed very selective and most often
limited to those works which manifested its modern visual form.
Even though according to most critics the “Wprost” painters have been always
considered the main representatives of the new figuration, in fact they were mar-
ginal. It is true that the group was founded at the moment when the new figuration
came into being, but on the other hand, the Cracow painters belonged to a whole
generation of artists who contested the petrified canons of abstraction. Still, the
protest against the “programmatic meaninglessness” of art, as Tadeusz Nyczek has
put it, was understood by the “Wprost” artists somewhat differently - one may say,
morę concretely or maturely. The explicitness of the ąuestions they asked and the
harshness of tonę - representing their topics always in relation to current events
and by means of a strongly figuratiye visual idiom - madę them not so much differ-
125
though the official press was fuli of appeals for the engaged and humanistic art, the
“Wprost” painters who wanted to bring to the foreground the problems of modern
man were never officially appreciated. Maybe that was because they saw those
problems in too intense light, while the dangers were recognized on the wrong “side.”
Their diagnosis of the sources of danger inherent in the political system itself could
not be approved by the authorities at all, which was why the official Exhibitions of
the Realistic Painting never included any of the most poignant works of the “Wprost”
members. The paintings which madę explicit comments on current social problems
were shown very carefully.
When the reviewers of the exhibitions occasionally rebuked artists for no sense
of engagement, in fact they used ironie tropes and phrases instead of expressing
genuine discomfort with the situation. When they expected art to start a rebellion, it
was supposed to be “mild” and safe for the political status quo. When they wanted
painters to deal with problems, those were the problems easy to control and subject
to a specific interpretation.
Many critics who evaluated the neo-figurative paintings used the positive crite-
rion of their avant-garde character. The morę innovative, original, and uniąue the
artistic approach happened to be, the better was the artwork. That was in fact an
element of tactics which aimed at shifting the focus of the debate from the artistic
objects to the idiom of artistic expression, so that the “content” could be safely ig-
nored. The slogans of modernity were used to make the public believe that Polish art
was participating in the evolution of the international avant-garde, while on the
other hand they were to make it “familiar” or, as Andrzej Turowski has put it, make
it “socialist” in expression. The new figuration was approached as the “art of the
present day” - something current, innovative, and fashionable. Under such circum-
stances it was not difficult to neglect the issues which determined the message of
that art, both actual and intended by the painters.
It is interesting that the “familiarization” of the neo-figuration did not consist in
some sort of direct interference with the content or in imposing of the rules of form,
which was the case in the times of the socialist realism, but only through clever ma-
nipulation. Never trying to influence the subject matter, the authorities did every-
thing to stimulate in the new figuration those currents which remained distant from
politics. Thus, the reception of that trend was indeed very selective and most often
limited to those works which manifested its modern visual form.
Even though according to most critics the “Wprost” painters have been always
considered the main representatives of the new figuration, in fact they were mar-
ginal. It is true that the group was founded at the moment when the new figuration
came into being, but on the other hand, the Cracow painters belonged to a whole
generation of artists who contested the petrified canons of abstraction. Still, the
protest against the “programmatic meaninglessness” of art, as Tadeusz Nyczek has
put it, was understood by the “Wprost” artists somewhat differently - one may say,
morę concretely or maturely. The explicitness of the ąuestions they asked and the
harshness of tonę - representing their topics always in relation to current events
and by means of a strongly figuratiye visual idiom - madę them not so much differ-