DOI issue:
Nr. 3-4
DOI article:Wojciechowski, Aleksander: Dekada
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49349#0536
522
Aleksander Wojciechowski
Farm, while depictions of animal heads in 'Bestiary'
portrayed the perfidious and Janus-faced aspects of
modern times. Lebenstein stated: 'Ifyou become an
artist by choice and not by accident, the responsibil-
ity towards society and commitment comes through
naturally'.
Weariness with the schematic way in which state-
sponsored patronage operated had already ex-
pressed itself in the 1960s The large state-owned
companies were supposed to function as new pa-
trons, and, although this development was obviously
still subject to considerable state interference, the
more innovative currents in art it produced during
the 1970s clearly reflected a growing preparedness
for a change of sponsor. The idea was taken up at the
Warsaw Congress of Polish Culture, organised un-
der the auspices of the Consultative Committee of
Creative and Academic Associations (interrupted by
the declaration on 13th December 1981 of Marshal
Law), which voiced its support for the pluralising of
art. It was at this time that the concept of 'independ-
ent art', as yet undefined, may be understood as hav-
ing arisen.
In the 1960s and 1970s, it was not exclusively a
question of so-called 'political culture' and discus-
sions were concentrated above all else on artistic
matters. Two directions (or were they postures?) in
world art: 'environment', meaning in simple terms
'occupation of space' composed of numerous ob-
jects discovered by artists, as well as happenings and
the art of action, summed up as a 'paratheatrical
event'. Both directions found their reflection in the
Polish fine arts of the 1980s. A spatial composition
which made a strong impression on viewers was
Jerzy Kalina's 'Last Supper', exhibited in the church
on Żytnia Steet in 1983, at an exhibition titled Sign
of the Cross (Znak Krzyża). At the same exhibition
Teresa Murak presented a form of happening titled
'Raising of the Cross' and involving numerous peo-
ple and became thereafter a spatial composition.
Large themed exhibitions organised in churches
during the 1980s became group 'declarations' of
artistic and ideological content. They were both ar-
tistic displays and manifestoes of common action for
contemporaneous thought and objective. Hence the
almost mediaeval anonymity of certain works of art
subordinated to a higher idea. In confronting the
question of where the need to relate to the most dis-
tant Polish traditions originated there is, in the au-
thor's opinion, no clear-cut answer. The fact
remains, whatever, that through the initiative of indi-
vidual 'artists' group works of art with moralistic
contents and messages.
The cycle of theme exhibitions staged in reli-
gious houses began with Znak Krzyża, which was or-
ganised according to script by Janusz Bogucki. In
the Żytnia Street church, Marek Rostworowski put
on display an exhibition titled 'New heaven, new
world?' (Niebo nowe i ziemia nowa?) depicting the
artist's one interpretation of people's road in life. A
drama titled Wieczernik (a word relating to the Last
Supper), written by Ernest Bryll and directed by
Andrzej Wajda was staged in the same place, being
performed by some of the best-known actors of the
day. In the same year of 1985 a form of mystery play
titled W stronę Osoby ('Towards the Person') with
scenario by Tadeusz Boruta was put on, its religious
contents seeking to emphasise the universal and hu-
manistic values of Polish culture. A second impor-
tant artistic 'happening' in the mediaeval Polish
capital was an exhibition, also involving Boruta, put
on in another church, that of the Piarists' church ti-
tled 'A Mystery-play of Suffering, Death and Resur-
rection', only in this production the uniwersał themes
alluded to were not entirely connected with a reli-
gious theme.
The Polish 'rewolution', like the French Revolu-
tion which took place two centuries before it, may be
said to have rocked Europe in a political sense, while
at the same time producing a rich creative outpour-
ing of nationally-orientated artistry. This was a
Polish phenomenon, unique and quite unrepeatable
anywhere else in the world.
Marta Boberska, Peter Martyn
Aleksander Wojciechowski
Farm, while depictions of animal heads in 'Bestiary'
portrayed the perfidious and Janus-faced aspects of
modern times. Lebenstein stated: 'Ifyou become an
artist by choice and not by accident, the responsibil-
ity towards society and commitment comes through
naturally'.
Weariness with the schematic way in which state-
sponsored patronage operated had already ex-
pressed itself in the 1960s The large state-owned
companies were supposed to function as new pa-
trons, and, although this development was obviously
still subject to considerable state interference, the
more innovative currents in art it produced during
the 1970s clearly reflected a growing preparedness
for a change of sponsor. The idea was taken up at the
Warsaw Congress of Polish Culture, organised un-
der the auspices of the Consultative Committee of
Creative and Academic Associations (interrupted by
the declaration on 13th December 1981 of Marshal
Law), which voiced its support for the pluralising of
art. It was at this time that the concept of 'independ-
ent art', as yet undefined, may be understood as hav-
ing arisen.
In the 1960s and 1970s, it was not exclusively a
question of so-called 'political culture' and discus-
sions were concentrated above all else on artistic
matters. Two directions (or were they postures?) in
world art: 'environment', meaning in simple terms
'occupation of space' composed of numerous ob-
jects discovered by artists, as well as happenings and
the art of action, summed up as a 'paratheatrical
event'. Both directions found their reflection in the
Polish fine arts of the 1980s. A spatial composition
which made a strong impression on viewers was
Jerzy Kalina's 'Last Supper', exhibited in the church
on Żytnia Steet in 1983, at an exhibition titled Sign
of the Cross (Znak Krzyża). At the same exhibition
Teresa Murak presented a form of happening titled
'Raising of the Cross' and involving numerous peo-
ple and became thereafter a spatial composition.
Large themed exhibitions organised in churches
during the 1980s became group 'declarations' of
artistic and ideological content. They were both ar-
tistic displays and manifestoes of common action for
contemporaneous thought and objective. Hence the
almost mediaeval anonymity of certain works of art
subordinated to a higher idea. In confronting the
question of where the need to relate to the most dis-
tant Polish traditions originated there is, in the au-
thor's opinion, no clear-cut answer. The fact
remains, whatever, that through the initiative of indi-
vidual 'artists' group works of art with moralistic
contents and messages.
The cycle of theme exhibitions staged in reli-
gious houses began with Znak Krzyża, which was or-
ganised according to script by Janusz Bogucki. In
the Żytnia Street church, Marek Rostworowski put
on display an exhibition titled 'New heaven, new
world?' (Niebo nowe i ziemia nowa?) depicting the
artist's one interpretation of people's road in life. A
drama titled Wieczernik (a word relating to the Last
Supper), written by Ernest Bryll and directed by
Andrzej Wajda was staged in the same place, being
performed by some of the best-known actors of the
day. In the same year of 1985 a form of mystery play
titled W stronę Osoby ('Towards the Person') with
scenario by Tadeusz Boruta was put on, its religious
contents seeking to emphasise the universal and hu-
manistic values of Polish culture. A second impor-
tant artistic 'happening' in the mediaeval Polish
capital was an exhibition, also involving Boruta, put
on in another church, that of the Piarists' church ti-
tled 'A Mystery-play of Suffering, Death and Resur-
rection', only in this production the uniwersał themes
alluded to were not entirely connected with a reli-
gious theme.
The Polish 'rewolution', like the French Revolu-
tion which took place two centuries before it, may be
said to have rocked Europe in a political sense, while
at the same time producing a rich creative outpour-
ing of nationally-orientated artistry. This was a
Polish phenomenon, unique and quite unrepeatable
anywhere else in the world.
Marta Boberska, Peter Martyn