Exhibition archive

As part of the research project History of exhibitions at Zachęta — Central Bureau of Artistic Exhibitions in 1949–1970, Marek Czapelski from the Institute of Art History of the University of Warsaw researched the exhibition by Oskar Hansen and Bohdan Urbanowicz in the Polish Pavilion at the 37th International Art Exhibition in Venice (1976).

Katarzyna Kozyra’s exhibition Men’s Bathhouse (curator: Hanna Wróblewska) received an honorable mention from the jury.

Special mention goes to Katarzyna Kozyra for exploring and challenging the authoritarian domain of the male territory, combining elements of performance art and stage production.

The exhibition Hotel Polonia. The Afterlife of Buildings (artists: Nicolas Grospierre, Kobas Laksa, curators: Grzegorz Piątek, Jarosław Trybuś) won the most important award for national participation — the Golden Lion.

In the Polish pavilion, the Jury found a remarkable mix of wit, technology  and intelligent speculation gathered to produce a polemic about the probable life-cycle of buildings in the context of the current problems facing cities, particularly those outside of first world economies. Hovering between art and architectural manifesto, the pavilion stimulated the imagination and interpretation of the jury members in a variety of different directions. Thus it best rose to the difficult challenge of responding to the spirit of the theme of the Biennale while evidencing an intimate loyalty to the nation it represents.

Jury awarded special mention for artist Katarzyna Krakowiak and curator Michał Libera for their exhibition Making the walls quake as if they were dilating with the secret knowledge of great powers. 

Special mention goes to Poland for ‘Making the walls quake as if they were dilating with the secret knowledge of great powers’. This brave and bold installation reminds the visitor to listen as well as to look… And to feel the sound of the Common Ground.

Dr Karolina Zychowicz writes about the 1954 exhibition organized by the Central Bureau of Art Exhibitions in cooperation with the Committee for Cultural Cooperation with Foreign Countries.

Kazimierz Urbański was one of the most interesting experimenters in Polish animation.

“The preparation of the exhibition of works by Katarzyna Kobro (1898–1951) and Władysław Strzemiński (1893–1952) was a complicated affair with a number of surprising turns of events.” — this is how professor Iwona Luba begins her elaboration on the 1957 exhibition of the famous pair of avant-garde artists.

‘My entire “secret” is about the combination of individual elements, threads, colours, the type of material. […]. The black of matte wool is different from the black of shiny silk, the whites of hemp, raw sheep’s fleece or a clothesline, and that is what I use for my textiles.’ Karolina Zychowicz writes about the artist’s exhibition at Zachęta in 1965.

The exhibition by Robert Maciejuk and Honza Zamojski was the culmination of their long-term cooperation and friendship. Despite formal differences, both artists have more in common than that which divides them. A sense of humor and a large dose of self-irony allow them to distance themselves from their creative work.

One of the main aims of C&N was to present the work of a person suffering from neurological disability. The heroine of the second edition of the conference was the Czech artist Iveta Pilařová, who presented her life with multiple sclerosis in a very personal way.

The exhibition of the Iraqi Kurd and refugee presented his works, in which biographical elements are mixed with what is fictional. He dipicts in a completely new light the issues that refugee around the world must face.

“The introduction by Helena Krajewska published in the catalog situates the exhibition in a series of propaganda-promoting events organized by KWKZ (Committee for Cultural Cooperation with Foreign Countries)” writes Stanisław Welbel.

One of the exhibitions goals was to “authenticate the thesis that the aesthetics of Socialist Realism were a logical consequence of realistic trends that had been developing for centuries in people’s democracies”.

The exhibition by Joanna Kordjak and Agnieszka Szewczyk was an attempt to answer the question of how the complexity of social moods and political tensions in post-war Poland were reflected in fine arts, photography, film, architecture and design.

Last year, wicker tents were erected on Małachowski Square. Let us recall an earlier “wicker” project by same artists at the ZPR.

How did our grandparents arrange their “little cages” after the war? We recall the exhibition from 1952.

Maria Brewińska’s 2009 exhibition focused on the animal world in art.

At the exhibition in 2008, curator Anna Maria Leśniewska showcased the extraordinary work of this Polish sculptor. Here is the curatorial text and documentation of this exhibition.

An exhibition of a politically and socially engaged German artist from the turn of the 19th and 20th century.

The 1968 exhibition was in line with the cultural policy of the minister André Malraux, who established a commission in charge of public procurement of works of art.

‘Technological progress provides the artist with solutions unknown hitherto’ — wrote Michel Faré in 1964 in the exhibition catalog.

Aleksandra Kubiak’s exhibition presented a very personal film that combined video performance with a documentary.

‘An image of the country in which we live, which we build, improve and beautify’ –this is how the exhibition was announced in the press in 1969.

Monika Sosnowska represented Poland at the 52nd International Art Exhibition in Venice. Find out more about her project 1 : 1.

In 1954, Karol Eberhardt wrote about “violent and colorful art” of Guttuso. The past exhibition from the CBWA is recalled by Karolina Zychowicz.

1957. In front of Zacheta Zachęta there was a “propaganda” spatial decoration designed by Wojciech Zamecznik.

‘Waterbull (1945), a Pollock painting owned by the Stedelijk since 1950, was sent to Warsaw. The work constituted the artist’s answer to Picasso’s Guernica, travelling around the US from 1939‘ 

The exhibition consisted of seven films by outstanding artists, showing the earth’s and human’s condition, what we lose and what we desire, as well as the effects of different varieties of alienation that we experience globally today.

The exhibition presented the symbolic “starting point” of the People’s Republic of Poland, presenting photos of Warsaw’s ruins, taken just after the liberation of the city.

Hansen’s Open Form and Linear Continuous System, as well as an analysis of the “visual contamination” and a critique of Urbanowicz’s urban monoculture – a Venetian presentation at CBWA in 1977.

First extensive exhibition of naïve art at the CBWA took place in 1958. Gabriela Świtek writes about the show and its reception.

100 Works from Futurism to the Present Day Depicting the Italian Contribution to European Avant-garde in the 20th Century – CBWA, year 1968. 

“For the first time we have the opportunity to get more closely acquainted with drawings, prints and watercolours from the U.S” — wrote an art critique in 1958. Read Petra Skorypsky’s research paper.

The first comprehensive showcase of Soviet socialist realism took place at Zachęta in 1951. About its ideological dimension, among others, writes dr hab. Iwona Luba.

Paintings and drawings by Witkacy, at an exhibition arranged by Tadeusz Kantor himself. We are going back in time to 1967.

Prof. Andrzej Pieńkos writes about the exhibition of young Danish artists, presented at Zachęta in 1968.