DOI article:
Balisz-Schmelz, Justyna: „Ewokują monstra rozkładu”. Ogólnopolska Wystawa Młodej Plastyki „Przeciw wojnie – przeciw faszyzmowi” w świetle „niemiecko-niemieckiego” sporu o ekspresjonizm
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44936#0135
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SUMMARY
Justyna Balisz-Schmelz
(The University of Warsaw, Art History Institute)
‘THEY EVOKE MONSTERS OF DECAY’.
THE POLISH NATIONWIDE EXHIBITION
OF YOUNG ARTISTS: AGAINST WAR -
AGAINST FASCISM’ IN THE LIGHT
OF GERMANY’S INTERNAL CONTROVERSY
OVER EXPRESSIONISM
The article’s point of departure is an exhibition from 1955,
popularly known as the Arsenal’, which holds an impor-
tant place in Polish art historiography. The showing was
a forum where discussions reflecting the then current cul-
tural policy of the state’s authorities were intensified and
superimposed with individual attitudes of artists towards
this cultural policy of the state and with reminiscences of
the wartime past. The present analysis focuses mainly on
the phenomenon of expressive figuration that has been
much discussed in literature dealing with the Arsenal’
and sparked numerous polemics. An aspect rarely exam-
ined by scholars dealing with the Arsenal’, namely, a ref-
erence to historical, cultural and political conditions that
had shaped the reception of expressive figuration in Ger-
many, the ‘homeland of expressionism’ - and a country
that at that time had served as an important point of ref-
erence for Poland’s identity - allows for viewing the pres-
entation of Polish artists at the ‘Arsenal’ in a broader com-
parative context of the post-war ‘controversy of images’.
SUMMARY
Justyna Balisz-Schmelz
(The University of Warsaw, Art History Institute)
‘THEY EVOKE MONSTERS OF DECAY’.
THE POLISH NATIONWIDE EXHIBITION
OF YOUNG ARTISTS: AGAINST WAR -
AGAINST FASCISM’ IN THE LIGHT
OF GERMANY’S INTERNAL CONTROVERSY
OVER EXPRESSIONISM
The article’s point of departure is an exhibition from 1955,
popularly known as the Arsenal’, which holds an impor-
tant place in Polish art historiography. The showing was
a forum where discussions reflecting the then current cul-
tural policy of the state’s authorities were intensified and
superimposed with individual attitudes of artists towards
this cultural policy of the state and with reminiscences of
the wartime past. The present analysis focuses mainly on
the phenomenon of expressive figuration that has been
much discussed in literature dealing with the Arsenal’
and sparked numerous polemics. An aspect rarely exam-
ined by scholars dealing with the Arsenal’, namely, a ref-
erence to historical, cultural and political conditions that
had shaped the reception of expressive figuration in Ger-
many, the ‘homeland of expressionism’ - and a country
that at that time had served as an important point of ref-
erence for Poland’s identity - allows for viewing the pres-
entation of Polish artists at the ‘Arsenal’ in a broader com-
parative context of the post-war ‘controversy of images’.