DOI Heft:
Nr. 2-3
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#0100
4. Marek Oberlander, Two figures, 1954, pen drawing, ink on paper, Wrocław, Muzeum
Narodowe (Pliot. Edmund Witecki)
no sucli possibilities during the period of socialist realism. In her text in the exhibition catalogue,
Maryla Sitkowska makes us aware of the problems caused by her adoption of the commercial
function of posters for the classification of works of Polish socialist realism. Yet the visitor to
the exhibition was not aware of these problems because of the choice of works for the exhibition
bringing out the variety of socialist realism and prcsenting it as an auction of different values
expressed in different styles. This is probably in keeping with the premises of the organisers
and the title of the show, but not with what we know about the period in generał, and about
the art of socialist realism from research carried out to date.
The impression of variety in the National Museum also resulted from the exhibition design,
especially the use of the main lobby and the projection stressing the „construction rhetoric"
through scaffoldings, paintings put up high abovc the floor, etc (Figs 5, 7). Again, without attemp-
ting an assessment of this device for the purposc of the exhibition Aspecłs of Socialist Realism,
we may ask to what cxtent (if any) exhibitions of closed periods in contemporary art should
rely on the settings. Should we accept that a work of art is independent of contemporary culture
in the bioad understanding of the term (which applies to the musie, lighting and the overall
atmosphere conjured up in the definite type of spacc) or should we accept that they complement
eaeh other? In contemporary art with strong avaul-gardc traditions, the ąuestion is not without
meaning.
90
Narodowe (Pliot. Edmund Witecki)
no sucli possibilities during the period of socialist realism. In her text in the exhibition catalogue,
Maryla Sitkowska makes us aware of the problems caused by her adoption of the commercial
function of posters for the classification of works of Polish socialist realism. Yet the visitor to
the exhibition was not aware of these problems because of the choice of works for the exhibition
bringing out the variety of socialist realism and prcsenting it as an auction of different values
expressed in different styles. This is probably in keeping with the premises of the organisers
and the title of the show, but not with what we know about the period in generał, and about
the art of socialist realism from research carried out to date.
The impression of variety in the National Museum also resulted from the exhibition design,
especially the use of the main lobby and the projection stressing the „construction rhetoric"
through scaffoldings, paintings put up high abovc the floor, etc (Figs 5, 7). Again, without attemp-
ting an assessment of this device for the purposc of the exhibition Aspecłs of Socialist Realism,
we may ask to what cxtent (if any) exhibitions of closed periods in contemporary art should
rely on the settings. Should we accept that a work of art is independent of contemporary culture
in the bioad understanding of the term (which applies to the musie, lighting and the overall
atmosphere conjured up in the definite type of spacc) or should we accept that they complement
eaeh other? In contemporary art with strong avaul-gardc traditions, the ąuestion is not without
meaning.
90