DOI Heft:
Nr. 3-4
DOI Artikel:Lachowski, Marcin: Na rozdrożu nowoczesności - "galerie niezależne" w Polsce lat 60
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49349#0512
498
Marcin Lachowski
obrazu. Sytuację widza określa zarazem sens obrazu, zakreślony pojęciami „problemów
doniosłych, ostatecznych, lub naukowo sprawdzalnych - w wartościach ponadczaso-
wych". „Frontalność i bariery ochronne", charakteryzujące zdaniem Ptaszkowskiej „no-
woczesny obraz", w istocie świadczą o procesie utrwalania pozycji obserwatora wobec
obrazu. Refleksja Ptaszkowskiej wynikająca z doświadczenia „nowego wizualizmu" w
istocie była reinterpretacją„nowoczesności", której świadectwo stanowił m.in. I Biennale
Form Przestrzennych w Elblągu. Formuła obrazu ewoluująca ku formie przestrzennej,
manifestacyjnie przekształciła zasadę odbioru w kategorię uczestnictwa - niemożliwą do
wyartykułowania, ponieważ opartą na nieredukowalnym doświadczeniu sztuki. Galerie
lat 60. nie kwestionując swego artystycznego statusu, powołały własną mitologię - mit
pierwotnego, niezapośredniczonego zetknięcia z „rzeczywistością sztuki".
At the Crossroads of Modernity. 'Independent galleries'
in Poland during the 1960s
This text is the product of an attempt to view avant-
garde art in Poland of the 1960s as presented from
the perspective of three galeries: El, as run by Gerard
Kwiatkowski in Elbląg, Jerzy Ludwiński's Pod
Moną Lizą in Wrocław as well as Foksal under the
supervision of Wiesław Borowski, Hanna
Ptaszkowska and Mariusz Tchorek in Warsaw. The
subject of the author's reflexions became the trans-
formation under the impact of the post-Stalinist
'thaw' which occurred in the paradigm of modern
art in the direction of moving outside the frame of
the 'neo-avant-garde'. The 'independent galleries'
were not only actively involved but played a deci-
sive role in this transformation. This phenomenon is
dealt with in the context of notions like 'avant-
garde', 'institution', 'organie work' and 'montage'
as applied by Peter Burger in his monograph Theory
of the Avant-garde.
What generally linked the people running the
particular galleries was concentrated on phenomena
in art defined by the term 'neo-avant-garde', which
signified a rejection of the formula 'modernity';
namely, 'modernity' in relation to painting as char-
acterised by a concise form deprived of unambigu-
ous narration and featuring autonomy of the painted
sign as interpreted in categories of interna! artistic
logic. Issues relating to the 'concrete picture' and
'picture as an object' discussed during the thaw,
while guaranteeing the autonomy of artistic creativ-
ity, were also interpreted as indications of artistic
commitment to the question of modernity, the artist
'reflecting' the fundamenta! 'problems of the age' as
much as he participated in its formation. Negation of
'socialist realism' demanded substantiating the role
of 'modern painting' in the categories of 'commit-
ment' to modernity, sketched out in critical texts in
very generał outlines. Categories such as 'a picture's
autonomy' and 'the art of commitment' were most
closely linked to each other at the First Biennale of
Spatial Forms organised at ElbPg, which had been
preceded by the exhibition 'Confrontations '65' in
the El Gallery. Linking an exhibition embracing vari-
ous artistic options typical of the first half of the
1960s with the idea of artistically shaping a city
badly damaged during the war and seriously ne-
glected thereafter (through spatial forms carried out
from scrap materials), forced the critics of the time
to a basie reevaluation of questions of the greatest
vitality for the tradition of art from the 'thaw' pe-
riod, 'art of commitment and 'a picture's autonomy'.
The 'expositional' context gave rise to other ways of
reading 'the modern picture', forcing to some extent
the contextualisation of works beyond the immanent
form, and in spite of the retaining of their integral
structure. Artists, seeking in standard elements the
possibility of individualising their statements,
shaped the original materiał through its negation: the
complicating and combining of ready-made, prefab-
ricated elements and the removing of the original,
material meaning. The principle for organising spa-
tial forms was discrete expression and individualisa-
tion of the material. As it would appear, this failure
to relate the conception of an autonomous picture to
the requirements of the exposition's area defined in
a specific manner the turning point of modernism.
On the one hand, the art critics' reproaches con-
cerned the failure to relate forms to their surround-
ings, the lack of a superior vision of the whole, while
Marcin Lachowski
obrazu. Sytuację widza określa zarazem sens obrazu, zakreślony pojęciami „problemów
doniosłych, ostatecznych, lub naukowo sprawdzalnych - w wartościach ponadczaso-
wych". „Frontalność i bariery ochronne", charakteryzujące zdaniem Ptaszkowskiej „no-
woczesny obraz", w istocie świadczą o procesie utrwalania pozycji obserwatora wobec
obrazu. Refleksja Ptaszkowskiej wynikająca z doświadczenia „nowego wizualizmu" w
istocie była reinterpretacją„nowoczesności", której świadectwo stanowił m.in. I Biennale
Form Przestrzennych w Elblągu. Formuła obrazu ewoluująca ku formie przestrzennej,
manifestacyjnie przekształciła zasadę odbioru w kategorię uczestnictwa - niemożliwą do
wyartykułowania, ponieważ opartą na nieredukowalnym doświadczeniu sztuki. Galerie
lat 60. nie kwestionując swego artystycznego statusu, powołały własną mitologię - mit
pierwotnego, niezapośredniczonego zetknięcia z „rzeczywistością sztuki".
At the Crossroads of Modernity. 'Independent galleries'
in Poland during the 1960s
This text is the product of an attempt to view avant-
garde art in Poland of the 1960s as presented from
the perspective of three galeries: El, as run by Gerard
Kwiatkowski in Elbląg, Jerzy Ludwiński's Pod
Moną Lizą in Wrocław as well as Foksal under the
supervision of Wiesław Borowski, Hanna
Ptaszkowska and Mariusz Tchorek in Warsaw. The
subject of the author's reflexions became the trans-
formation under the impact of the post-Stalinist
'thaw' which occurred in the paradigm of modern
art in the direction of moving outside the frame of
the 'neo-avant-garde'. The 'independent galleries'
were not only actively involved but played a deci-
sive role in this transformation. This phenomenon is
dealt with in the context of notions like 'avant-
garde', 'institution', 'organie work' and 'montage'
as applied by Peter Burger in his monograph Theory
of the Avant-garde.
What generally linked the people running the
particular galleries was concentrated on phenomena
in art defined by the term 'neo-avant-garde', which
signified a rejection of the formula 'modernity';
namely, 'modernity' in relation to painting as char-
acterised by a concise form deprived of unambigu-
ous narration and featuring autonomy of the painted
sign as interpreted in categories of interna! artistic
logic. Issues relating to the 'concrete picture' and
'picture as an object' discussed during the thaw,
while guaranteeing the autonomy of artistic creativ-
ity, were also interpreted as indications of artistic
commitment to the question of modernity, the artist
'reflecting' the fundamenta! 'problems of the age' as
much as he participated in its formation. Negation of
'socialist realism' demanded substantiating the role
of 'modern painting' in the categories of 'commit-
ment' to modernity, sketched out in critical texts in
very generał outlines. Categories such as 'a picture's
autonomy' and 'the art of commitment' were most
closely linked to each other at the First Biennale of
Spatial Forms organised at ElbPg, which had been
preceded by the exhibition 'Confrontations '65' in
the El Gallery. Linking an exhibition embracing vari-
ous artistic options typical of the first half of the
1960s with the idea of artistically shaping a city
badly damaged during the war and seriously ne-
glected thereafter (through spatial forms carried out
from scrap materials), forced the critics of the time
to a basie reevaluation of questions of the greatest
vitality for the tradition of art from the 'thaw' pe-
riod, 'art of commitment and 'a picture's autonomy'.
The 'expositional' context gave rise to other ways of
reading 'the modern picture', forcing to some extent
the contextualisation of works beyond the immanent
form, and in spite of the retaining of their integral
structure. Artists, seeking in standard elements the
possibility of individualising their statements,
shaped the original materiał through its negation: the
complicating and combining of ready-made, prefab-
ricated elements and the removing of the original,
material meaning. The principle for organising spa-
tial forms was discrete expression and individualisa-
tion of the material. As it would appear, this failure
to relate the conception of an autonomous picture to
the requirements of the exposition's area defined in
a specific manner the turning point of modernism.
On the one hand, the art critics' reproaches con-
cerned the failure to relate forms to their surround-
ings, the lack of a superior vision of the whole, while