DOI issue:
Nr. 1-2
DOI article:Wierzbicka, Anna: Polsko-francuski krytyk Waldemar George i jego poglądy na sztukę
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49354#0171
The Polish-French Critic Waldemar George and his opinions on art
165
Waldemar George był krytykiem i intelektualistą o rozległej wiedzy i zainteresowa-
niach. Cieszył się ogromnym autorytetem i popularnością we Francji i w Niemczech. Znał
i przyjaźnił się z czołowymi artystami, filozofami i krytykami pierwszej połowy ubiegłe-
go stulecia. Napisał ponad sto książek i monografii oraz setki artykułów. Swoje poglądy,
często bardzo kontrowersyjne, wypowiadał śmiało. Odkrył i wylansował wielu młodych
artystów pochodzenia niefrancuskiego, potrafił ze znawstwem, erudycją i talentem pisar-
skim pisać o wielu dziedzinach sztuki. Był osobowością nietuzinkową, której twórczość
pisarska z pewnością warta jest przypomnienia.
The Polish-French Critic Waldemar George
and his opinions on art
Waldemar George was born in Łódź on the lOth July
1893 as Waldemar Jerzy Jarociński, the son of the
manufacturer Stanisław and Regina Eugenia
Goldfeder, who came from a rich family ofbankers.
Jarociński was well-educated. He knew at least five
languages: Latin, English, French, German and Ital-
ian, as well as his native Polish. He frequented a sec-
ondary school in Warsaw. As a seventeen or
eighteen year-old boy, during his stay in Warsaw, he
published a volume of poems titled Otęcz. Around
1911, because of the patriotic content of these po-
ems and the liability of being sentenced to several
years' imprisonment, Jarociński left for France. His
uncle, Jean Finot, lived in Paris and was the editor-
in-chief of 'La Revue Mondiale'. Here Jarociński
began, or continued, studies in the field of humani-
ties at the Sorbonne University. He started work as a
journalist in 1912 in the periodical 'Paris-Journal'.
Two other prominent art-critics, Louis Vauxcelles
(probably Louis Meyer) and Andre Salmon, both of
Polish origin, also wrote articles for this periodical.
In 1914 he joined, as a volunteer, the French Army.
This gave him a French citizenship which he re-
ceived on the 15th December of the same year. He
also changed his name into the more French and
easier to pronounce George.
During the years 1917-1922 Waldemar George col-
laborated with such 'pacifist' periodicals as 'La
Caravane' (1914-1918), 'La Forge' (1914-1917)
and 'Les Cahiers idealistes franęaises' (1917-1921).
These periodicals served as a place of meeting and
dialogue between pacifists and intellectuals, social-
ists and advocates of modernity. George published
political commentaries and reviews concerning cul-
tural events here. He supported the October Revolu-
tion and the Spartacist Revolution in Berlin. He also
propagated the idea of a revolution in the French
intellectual milieu and supported, similarly to the
Ghilde des Forgerons (the society, which edited the
periodical 'La Forge'), the idea of creating a peo-
ple's university. Thanks to Vauxcelles, in the years
1918-1919, he wrote texts for 'Le Pays'. George
seized collaboration with the socialist press after
1922. At that time he was a well-known critic who
published texts in the most prominent French and
German periodicals concerning art.
In 1920 George began work as the editorial secre-
tary of the periodical 'L'Amour de l'Art'. In 1925 he
was nominated editor-in-chief of the periodical. He
took the post of Louis Vauxcelles who, because of
various misunderstandings with George, left the peri-
odical. George's texts were also published in French
periodicals such as 'L'Esprit Nouveau', 'Paris-Jour-
nal', 'Les Arts a Paris', 'La Renaissance de 1'Art
Franęais', 'L'Art et les Artists' and German periodi-
cals such as 'Das Kunstblatt' and 'Das Kunst'. In his
articles from the 1920s the critic defended and sup-
ported the cubists, expressionists and artists con-
nected with the Ecole de Paris. He defended them
with great passion and courage, engaging himself in
polemics with other critics and periodicals.
In his texts written between 1920 and 1927
George promoted modern art which he called inde-
pendent art: 1'art independant. Cubism, according to
him, served as an antidote for the most isolating as-
pect of contemporary life - the rationalization of so-
cial relations and consciousness of men. He perceived
abstract painting as an expression of anti-rationalistic
ideas. The critic interpreted works done by such art-
ists as Gleizes, Braque, Gris and Lipchitz - as the art
of 'pure conception'. A lot of his publications of that
time were devoted to the artists from the Ecole
de Paris - painters and sculptors who worked on the
left bank of Paris, in the XIVth arrondissement,
165
Waldemar George był krytykiem i intelektualistą o rozległej wiedzy i zainteresowa-
niach. Cieszył się ogromnym autorytetem i popularnością we Francji i w Niemczech. Znał
i przyjaźnił się z czołowymi artystami, filozofami i krytykami pierwszej połowy ubiegłe-
go stulecia. Napisał ponad sto książek i monografii oraz setki artykułów. Swoje poglądy,
często bardzo kontrowersyjne, wypowiadał śmiało. Odkrył i wylansował wielu młodych
artystów pochodzenia niefrancuskiego, potrafił ze znawstwem, erudycją i talentem pisar-
skim pisać o wielu dziedzinach sztuki. Był osobowością nietuzinkową, której twórczość
pisarska z pewnością warta jest przypomnienia.
The Polish-French Critic Waldemar George
and his opinions on art
Waldemar George was born in Łódź on the lOth July
1893 as Waldemar Jerzy Jarociński, the son of the
manufacturer Stanisław and Regina Eugenia
Goldfeder, who came from a rich family ofbankers.
Jarociński was well-educated. He knew at least five
languages: Latin, English, French, German and Ital-
ian, as well as his native Polish. He frequented a sec-
ondary school in Warsaw. As a seventeen or
eighteen year-old boy, during his stay in Warsaw, he
published a volume of poems titled Otęcz. Around
1911, because of the patriotic content of these po-
ems and the liability of being sentenced to several
years' imprisonment, Jarociński left for France. His
uncle, Jean Finot, lived in Paris and was the editor-
in-chief of 'La Revue Mondiale'. Here Jarociński
began, or continued, studies in the field of humani-
ties at the Sorbonne University. He started work as a
journalist in 1912 in the periodical 'Paris-Journal'.
Two other prominent art-critics, Louis Vauxcelles
(probably Louis Meyer) and Andre Salmon, both of
Polish origin, also wrote articles for this periodical.
In 1914 he joined, as a volunteer, the French Army.
This gave him a French citizenship which he re-
ceived on the 15th December of the same year. He
also changed his name into the more French and
easier to pronounce George.
During the years 1917-1922 Waldemar George col-
laborated with such 'pacifist' periodicals as 'La
Caravane' (1914-1918), 'La Forge' (1914-1917)
and 'Les Cahiers idealistes franęaises' (1917-1921).
These periodicals served as a place of meeting and
dialogue between pacifists and intellectuals, social-
ists and advocates of modernity. George published
political commentaries and reviews concerning cul-
tural events here. He supported the October Revolu-
tion and the Spartacist Revolution in Berlin. He also
propagated the idea of a revolution in the French
intellectual milieu and supported, similarly to the
Ghilde des Forgerons (the society, which edited the
periodical 'La Forge'), the idea of creating a peo-
ple's university. Thanks to Vauxcelles, in the years
1918-1919, he wrote texts for 'Le Pays'. George
seized collaboration with the socialist press after
1922. At that time he was a well-known critic who
published texts in the most prominent French and
German periodicals concerning art.
In 1920 George began work as the editorial secre-
tary of the periodical 'L'Amour de l'Art'. In 1925 he
was nominated editor-in-chief of the periodical. He
took the post of Louis Vauxcelles who, because of
various misunderstandings with George, left the peri-
odical. George's texts were also published in French
periodicals such as 'L'Esprit Nouveau', 'Paris-Jour-
nal', 'Les Arts a Paris', 'La Renaissance de 1'Art
Franęais', 'L'Art et les Artists' and German periodi-
cals such as 'Das Kunstblatt' and 'Das Kunst'. In his
articles from the 1920s the critic defended and sup-
ported the cubists, expressionists and artists con-
nected with the Ecole de Paris. He defended them
with great passion and courage, engaging himself in
polemics with other critics and periodicals.
In his texts written between 1920 and 1927
George promoted modern art which he called inde-
pendent art: 1'art independant. Cubism, according to
him, served as an antidote for the most isolating as-
pect of contemporary life - the rationalization of so-
cial relations and consciousness of men. He perceived
abstract painting as an expression of anti-rationalistic
ideas. The critic interpreted works done by such art-
ists as Gleizes, Braque, Gris and Lipchitz - as the art
of 'pure conception'. A lot of his publications of that
time were devoted to the artists from the Ecole
de Paris - painters and sculptors who worked on the
left bank of Paris, in the XIVth arrondissement,