DOI article:
Labuda, Adam S.: A history of Polish art by Michał Walicki and Juliusz Starzyński in Poland between the World Wars: the West, Poland, the East
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52521#0071
Adam S. Labuda
A HISTORY OF POLISH ART
BY MICHAŁ WALICKI AND JULIUSZ STARZYŃSKI
IN POLAND BETWEEN THE WORLD WARS.
THE WEST, POLAND, THE EAST*
When Poland regained its independence in 1918, Polish scientists and
scholars faced fundamental challenges and tasks both as regards building in-
stitutions and organizations, and choosing directions and goals of research.
A well organized and effective academia was an indispensable element of
a sovereign state that aimed to take its place among other national research
cultures.
Already before the end of the Great War art historians were pointing at the
most urgent tasks and goals of their discipline. One of the most important
postulates was to make a record of all the works of art and monuments of
architecture as a way to integrate the artistic heritage on the territory of the
restored state, which had been scattered and divided by the borders of the oc-
cupant states and thus ungraspable as a whole.* 1 Regardless of that long term
The present paper is an annotated version of the presentation made during a confer-
ence organized to commemorate the centennial of the study of art history at the University
of Poznań on May 17, 2019. Its main objective is to identify in a nutshell the problems
mentioned in the subtitle and the arguments related to them. The connections of those
arguments with the intellectual, artistic, and political reality of Poland between the world
wars as well as the theoretical and methodological assumptions of Michal Walicki and Ju-
liusz Starzyński have been only cursorily addressed here - perhaps my reconnaissance will
become a stimulus for other scholars to study the historiography of art in the interwar pe-
riod, which has not been examined in detail yet. See also the final part of the paper below.
1 The first programmatic step in that direction was taken already in 1917 by a number
of Polish art historians who responded to an inquiry opened by Kasa im. Mianowskiego, an
independent institution founded at the end of the 19lh century to support Polish scholar-
ship. The responses were published in the first volume of the journal Nauka Polska, which
between the world wars became a forum of debates about scholarship in Poland. Historians
often took part in such debates. In volume I "they wrote not so much about the subject mat-
A HISTORY OF POLISH ART
BY MICHAŁ WALICKI AND JULIUSZ STARZYŃSKI
IN POLAND BETWEEN THE WORLD WARS.
THE WEST, POLAND, THE EAST*
When Poland regained its independence in 1918, Polish scientists and
scholars faced fundamental challenges and tasks both as regards building in-
stitutions and organizations, and choosing directions and goals of research.
A well organized and effective academia was an indispensable element of
a sovereign state that aimed to take its place among other national research
cultures.
Already before the end of the Great War art historians were pointing at the
most urgent tasks and goals of their discipline. One of the most important
postulates was to make a record of all the works of art and monuments of
architecture as a way to integrate the artistic heritage on the territory of the
restored state, which had been scattered and divided by the borders of the oc-
cupant states and thus ungraspable as a whole.* 1 Regardless of that long term
The present paper is an annotated version of the presentation made during a confer-
ence organized to commemorate the centennial of the study of art history at the University
of Poznań on May 17, 2019. Its main objective is to identify in a nutshell the problems
mentioned in the subtitle and the arguments related to them. The connections of those
arguments with the intellectual, artistic, and political reality of Poland between the world
wars as well as the theoretical and methodological assumptions of Michal Walicki and Ju-
liusz Starzyński have been only cursorily addressed here - perhaps my reconnaissance will
become a stimulus for other scholars to study the historiography of art in the interwar pe-
riod, which has not been examined in detail yet. See also the final part of the paper below.
1 The first programmatic step in that direction was taken already in 1917 by a number
of Polish art historians who responded to an inquiry opened by Kasa im. Mianowskiego, an
independent institution founded at the end of the 19lh century to support Polish scholar-
ship. The responses were published in the first volume of the journal Nauka Polska, which
between the world wars became a forum of debates about scholarship in Poland. Historians
often took part in such debates. In volume I "they wrote not so much about the subject mat-