DOI Heft:
Część IV. Sztuka XX i XXI wieku / Part IV. Art of the Twentieth and Twenty First Century
DOI Artikel:Nowak, Magdalena Nowak: Od obiektu do dokumentacji. Kolekcja Nowych Mediów w Muzeum Narodowym w Warszawie
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45362#0401
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Art of the Twentieth and Twenty First Century
Our aim was not only to define the new collection, but also to link it to other collections
presented at the museum. New media are somewhat opposed to traditional media, such
as painting, graphic arts, sculpture or photography. At present, the collection includes, i.a.,
video art, computer-based art, digitalized presentations of analogue photographs as well as
recordings of performance art and interventions. The works date to the 1970s, 80s, 90s and
the beginning of the 21st century. The New Media Collection (NMC) exists not only within the
museum as a whole; it became part of the Collection Modern Art, which comprises art created
after 1914. As the primary motivation behind the purchase of video works was the creation
of a permanent gallery, they were above all meant to supplement 2oth-century art, creating
a context for works which had already been present in the collection. This function was also
fulfilled by early Polish avant-garde films obtained from the National Film Archives, thanks to
which the vision of Polish art immortalized in paintings and prints was supplemented with a
medium that experienced a rapid development in the 1920s and 30s, shaping the imagination
of artists and art audiences alike.
To a large extent, the collection of modern art owes its current form to Jerzy Zanozihski
(1910-96), who curated it between i960 and 1983. With hindsight, it is possible to assess his
choice of works accepted to the collection with greater reserve, although it is not easy to evaluate
this process. Zanozihski mostly collected paintings, his purchase decisions were quite conserva-
tive, and he was not particularly interested in avant-garde movements. It is for this reason that
1970S and 1980s art in NMW is almost solely represented by paintings created by artists whose
position had already been established at the time. Ephemeral and performance art, installa-
tions or works with a complicated media status are almost non-existent. This is why the first
purchases made by the NMC in 2013 were the recordings of two performances by Zbigniew
Warpechowski: The Short Electrical Love Stoy (1979) and March (1984), two works by Akademia
Ruchu (Academy of Movement): Bus II (1975) (fig. 2) and Europe (1976) as well as Compositional
Games (1977) by Zygmunt Piotrowski (fig. 3) and The Raft of Medusa (1982) by Tomasz Sikorski
(fig. 4). The gallery also includes two works by Józef Robakowski: More Air! (1985) and From My
Window (1978-99), Liberating Exercises (1983-87) by Marek Janiak and Films and Animations
(1990-2010) by Robert Brylewski. In the 1970s and 1980s, Polish artists began to depart from
the modernist paradigm of a work of art that ought to be independent from non-artistic reality,
allowing the historical and social context to permeate their works. The heyday of independent
galleries operating next to art schools or Empik4 clubs, as well as a greater number of festivals,
biennales and plein-airs also made artists open up more to their surroundings. Groups such
as, for example, Akademia Ruchu relinquished studios and galleries, taking their actions to the
public space. Warpechowski is recognized as a pioneer of performance art not only in Poland,
but worldwide. Such interventions are a perfect example of art of the time; it would be difficult
to convey the atmosphere of that period by displaying paintings alone.
Some of these works were made using a 16-mm camera (e.g., The Short Electrical Love
Story, Europe, Bus If, a VHS camera (March) and an 8-mrn camera (The Raft of Medusa).
Compositional Games are analogue photographs. Films and Animations were edited on a compu-
ter. However, all of the above works are exhibited at the museum in digital format. The museum
did not purchase the original media, but a licence to show and loan the works, including the
right to use images. This is a peculiar situation, one that is not typical of museum institutions:
4 International Press and Book Club. Empik clubs performed the function of cultural centres and press-
rooms - [translator’s note].
Art of the Twentieth and Twenty First Century
Our aim was not only to define the new collection, but also to link it to other collections
presented at the museum. New media are somewhat opposed to traditional media, such
as painting, graphic arts, sculpture or photography. At present, the collection includes, i.a.,
video art, computer-based art, digitalized presentations of analogue photographs as well as
recordings of performance art and interventions. The works date to the 1970s, 80s, 90s and
the beginning of the 21st century. The New Media Collection (NMC) exists not only within the
museum as a whole; it became part of the Collection Modern Art, which comprises art created
after 1914. As the primary motivation behind the purchase of video works was the creation
of a permanent gallery, they were above all meant to supplement 2oth-century art, creating
a context for works which had already been present in the collection. This function was also
fulfilled by early Polish avant-garde films obtained from the National Film Archives, thanks to
which the vision of Polish art immortalized in paintings and prints was supplemented with a
medium that experienced a rapid development in the 1920s and 30s, shaping the imagination
of artists and art audiences alike.
To a large extent, the collection of modern art owes its current form to Jerzy Zanozihski
(1910-96), who curated it between i960 and 1983. With hindsight, it is possible to assess his
choice of works accepted to the collection with greater reserve, although it is not easy to evaluate
this process. Zanozihski mostly collected paintings, his purchase decisions were quite conserva-
tive, and he was not particularly interested in avant-garde movements. It is for this reason that
1970S and 1980s art in NMW is almost solely represented by paintings created by artists whose
position had already been established at the time. Ephemeral and performance art, installa-
tions or works with a complicated media status are almost non-existent. This is why the first
purchases made by the NMC in 2013 were the recordings of two performances by Zbigniew
Warpechowski: The Short Electrical Love Stoy (1979) and March (1984), two works by Akademia
Ruchu (Academy of Movement): Bus II (1975) (fig. 2) and Europe (1976) as well as Compositional
Games (1977) by Zygmunt Piotrowski (fig. 3) and The Raft of Medusa (1982) by Tomasz Sikorski
(fig. 4). The gallery also includes two works by Józef Robakowski: More Air! (1985) and From My
Window (1978-99), Liberating Exercises (1983-87) by Marek Janiak and Films and Animations
(1990-2010) by Robert Brylewski. In the 1970s and 1980s, Polish artists began to depart from
the modernist paradigm of a work of art that ought to be independent from non-artistic reality,
allowing the historical and social context to permeate their works. The heyday of independent
galleries operating next to art schools or Empik4 clubs, as well as a greater number of festivals,
biennales and plein-airs also made artists open up more to their surroundings. Groups such
as, for example, Akademia Ruchu relinquished studios and galleries, taking their actions to the
public space. Warpechowski is recognized as a pioneer of performance art not only in Poland,
but worldwide. Such interventions are a perfect example of art of the time; it would be difficult
to convey the atmosphere of that period by displaying paintings alone.
Some of these works were made using a 16-mm camera (e.g., The Short Electrical Love
Story, Europe, Bus If, a VHS camera (March) and an 8-mrn camera (The Raft of Medusa).
Compositional Games are analogue photographs. Films and Animations were edited on a compu-
ter. However, all of the above works are exhibited at the museum in digital format. The museum
did not purchase the original media, but a licence to show and loan the works, including the
right to use images. This is a peculiar situation, one that is not typical of museum institutions:
4 International Press and Book Club. Empik clubs performed the function of cultural centres and press-
rooms - [translator’s note].