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DOI Artikel:Włodarczyk, Wojciech: "Aspects of Socialist Realism": Exhibition in the National Museum in Warsaw
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18904#0096
The popularity of the exhibition resulted from at least three reasons. It was the first large
s urvey of art from 1945—55 with a competent catalogue including 483 items. Earlier exhibi-
tions dealing with the art of socialist realism ware limited to the single disci-
pline of poster design. Secondly, the exhibition in the National Museum highlighted
the Stalinist period which still arouses curiosity and emotions. Thirdly, the exhibition was
received as, to say the least, controversial. Art researehers, critics and reviewers questioned the
point of putting together and comparing works essentially different despite their apparent
similarity. To make the third reservation elear, we should briefly outline the chronology of
socialist realism in Poland, and present the trend against a broader backgroimd accounting for
its peculiar character. Socialist realism emerged in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s, but it
also appeared in variations (known as social rather than socialist realism) in Western countries.
After World War II, though it still enjoyed some popularity in the West (especially in France),
it spread primarily in the countries of Eastern Europę under communist rule. Before socialist
realism had been officially decreed and exacted, which happened at the tum of the 1950s, poli-
tically engaged art for the masses was stipulated in the course of a press campaing, public debates,
and resolutions of various artistic unions. The debates coincided with the debut made by a gene-
ration later called „Armory Show artists" (from the famous show in the Warsaw Armory in 1955,
the whole of which was prepared by representati ves of this very generation — at that time
a fact with no precedent) who criticised botli the Colourists, older than themselyes and con-
servative, and the representatives of the avant-garde tradition. During the domination of so-
cialist realism, the later Armory Show artists could not have demonstrated their artistic attitudes
which only bccame possible during the political thawing when the Armory Show was put on.
Some of the Polish art researehers attribute the show to socialist realism (thus also the authors
of the exhibition in the National Museum); others consider it the first decisive defiance of the
doctrine. In the late 1940s, both the Colourists and avant-gardists significantly altered their
artistic strategies and conceptsl At that moment of crucial importance to 20th century Polish
art, art for the masses, pohtically engaged and realistic, was attractiye to many artists (none of
whom took the stipulations of realism in its Soviet version seriously), especially as some of them,
like the „avant-gardists", derived from the prewar Left Wing where such concepts were popular,
while others, like the prewar advocates of „state-oriented" art", likewise felt attracted to the
concepts promulgated by the authoorities which were somehow related to their former ideals.
This is why the inclusion of paintings, prints and posters from the 1940s in the exhibition
Aspects of Socialist Realism, justified neither by their form nor by their content, aroused reser-
vations (Fig. 1). Socialist realism had no monopoly in depicting work and workers, which sub-
jects probably accounted for the presence of this group of works at the exhibition.
Art for the masses or engaged art does not automatically imply socialist realism. In 1950—54,
Polish art was not as varied as it was in 1945—50. Although it may be casily divided into the
,,heroic" period, 1951; the „classical" period, 1952, the period of disintegration, 1953—54, and
the characteristic traits of every stage may be singled out (the first was represented by the
paintings of the „barbarians": Włodzimierz Zakrzewski (Fig. 2), Andrzej Wróblewski, Juliusz
and Helena Krajewski (Fig. 3); the second by the paintings of the Colourists with Eugeniusz
Eibisch in the lead; the third by the production of the „Sopot School"), most of the works
executed in those years have ąualities in eommon with one another that distinguish them from
other paintings3, especially those by the Warsaw Armory Show painters. The fact that the
exhibition Aspects of Socialist Realism included their works (though in its last, sixth section
called ,,Convalescents") was perhaps the most controversial.
3. An attempt to distinguish those qualities was presented in: Wojciech Włodarczyk, „How to Paint a Good Socio-Realist
Paintings? Polish. An Studies, TV, 1983, pp. 75—83.
86
s urvey of art from 1945—55 with a competent catalogue including 483 items. Earlier exhibi-
tions dealing with the art of socialist realism ware limited to the single disci-
pline of poster design. Secondly, the exhibition in the National Museum highlighted
the Stalinist period which still arouses curiosity and emotions. Thirdly, the exhibition was
received as, to say the least, controversial. Art researehers, critics and reviewers questioned the
point of putting together and comparing works essentially different despite their apparent
similarity. To make the third reservation elear, we should briefly outline the chronology of
socialist realism in Poland, and present the trend against a broader backgroimd accounting for
its peculiar character. Socialist realism emerged in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s, but it
also appeared in variations (known as social rather than socialist realism) in Western countries.
After World War II, though it still enjoyed some popularity in the West (especially in France),
it spread primarily in the countries of Eastern Europę under communist rule. Before socialist
realism had been officially decreed and exacted, which happened at the tum of the 1950s, poli-
tically engaged art for the masses was stipulated in the course of a press campaing, public debates,
and resolutions of various artistic unions. The debates coincided with the debut made by a gene-
ration later called „Armory Show artists" (from the famous show in the Warsaw Armory in 1955,
the whole of which was prepared by representati ves of this very generation — at that time
a fact with no precedent) who criticised botli the Colourists, older than themselyes and con-
servative, and the representatives of the avant-garde tradition. During the domination of so-
cialist realism, the later Armory Show artists could not have demonstrated their artistic attitudes
which only bccame possible during the political thawing when the Armory Show was put on.
Some of the Polish art researehers attribute the show to socialist realism (thus also the authors
of the exhibition in the National Museum); others consider it the first decisive defiance of the
doctrine. In the late 1940s, both the Colourists and avant-gardists significantly altered their
artistic strategies and conceptsl At that moment of crucial importance to 20th century Polish
art, art for the masses, pohtically engaged and realistic, was attractiye to many artists (none of
whom took the stipulations of realism in its Soviet version seriously), especially as some of them,
like the „avant-gardists", derived from the prewar Left Wing where such concepts were popular,
while others, like the prewar advocates of „state-oriented" art", likewise felt attracted to the
concepts promulgated by the authoorities which were somehow related to their former ideals.
This is why the inclusion of paintings, prints and posters from the 1940s in the exhibition
Aspects of Socialist Realism, justified neither by their form nor by their content, aroused reser-
vations (Fig. 1). Socialist realism had no monopoly in depicting work and workers, which sub-
jects probably accounted for the presence of this group of works at the exhibition.
Art for the masses or engaged art does not automatically imply socialist realism. In 1950—54,
Polish art was not as varied as it was in 1945—50. Although it may be casily divided into the
,,heroic" period, 1951; the „classical" period, 1952, the period of disintegration, 1953—54, and
the characteristic traits of every stage may be singled out (the first was represented by the
paintings of the „barbarians": Włodzimierz Zakrzewski (Fig. 2), Andrzej Wróblewski, Juliusz
and Helena Krajewski (Fig. 3); the second by the paintings of the Colourists with Eugeniusz
Eibisch in the lead; the third by the production of the „Sopot School"), most of the works
executed in those years have ąualities in eommon with one another that distinguish them from
other paintings3, especially those by the Warsaw Armory Show painters. The fact that the
exhibition Aspects of Socialist Realism included their works (though in its last, sixth section
called ,,Convalescents") was perhaps the most controversial.
3. An attempt to distinguish those qualities was presented in: Wojciech Włodarczyk, „How to Paint a Good Socio-Realist
Paintings? Polish. An Studies, TV, 1983, pp. 75—83.
86