"Warsaw-Moscow/Moscow-Warsaw, 1900-2000": Zacheta National Gallery of Art."Warsaw-Moscow/Moscow-Warsaw, 1900-2000" was an outgrowth of the pioneering exhibitions of similar character, "Paris-Moscow" and "Berlin-Moscow," but its significance was quite different. While the two earlier blockbusters mainly celebrated, and validated, an art-historical division of Europe into "centers" and "peripheries" by the nations that have held claims to the highest achievements of modern art, the Warsaw exhibition, curated by Anda Rottenberg, matched two countries that most of the world hardly perceives as equal--politically, culturally, or artistically. Indirectly, this show reflected the presence of "blank spots" on the artistic map of Europe, which had often been justified in the past by the unfavorable geopolitical ge·o·pol·i·tics n. (used with a sing. verb) 1. The study of the relationship among politics and geography, demography, and economics, especially with respect to the foreign policy of a nation. 2. a. division of the old continent into East and West. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Providing a historical record of the development of arts in both countries by surveying works of some 250 artists, the exhibition included pieces by pioneering modernists such as Natalya Goncharova Natalya Goncharova was name of several women:
Kandinski, Kandinsky, Wassily Kandinski , Katarzyna Kobro Katarzyna Kobro (1898-1951 Łódź) was a Russian sculptor of Polish descent, considered to be one of the greatest female Polish sculptors. See also
tr.v. at·tuned, at·tun·ing, at·tunes 1. To bring into a harmonious or responsive relationship: an industry that is not attuned to market demands. 2. to the latest trends in the West, was clearly visible in the pendant to the Zacheta show--a large exhibition of recent works from both countries called "Beyond the Red Horizon: Contemporary Art from Poland and Russia" and mounted at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle--which gathered a large group of younger artists, many of them recognized internationally, some for sound reasons. By surveying artistic developments in Poland and Russia in the twentieth century, "Warsaw-Moscow/Moscow-Warsaw" was, however, mainly an internal affair between the Poles and the Russians. The exhibition, which traveled to the State Tretyakov Gallery The State Tretyakov Gallery (Russian: Государственная Третьяковская in Moscow in a modified version, resulted in an artistic exchange on an unprecedented scale between two nations that historically perceive each other with suspicion, if not distrust. Despite geographical closeness and common Slavic origins, significant interaction between Polish and Russian artists was limited in the past, but some events did reach an important symbolic level. Often mentioned among these is the 1927 exhibition of the Suprematist works of Kazimir Malevich, organized in Warsaw before the show was presented in Berlin and attended by an elite group of Polish artists The following is a list of some important Polish artists and groups of artists. For a more specific list see List of Polish painters. A
Focusing on Polishness and Russianness as historic distinctions, the show paid less attention to the multiethnic and multicultural aspects of either country, especially during the interwar period “Interbellum” redirects here. For other uses, see Interbellum (disambiguation). The interwar period (also interbellum) is understood within Western culture to be the period between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in . The reason for such an "oversimplification o·ver·sim·pli·fy v. o·ver·sim·pli·fied, o·ver·sim·pli·fy·ing, o·ver·sim·pli·fies v.tr. To simplify to the point of causing misrepresentation, misconception, or error. v.intr. " may well have been practical, for "Warsaw-Moscow/Moscow-Warsaw" was so ambitious in its attempt to map the artistic production from the entire twentieth century in Poland and Russia that it became crowded with works. By emphasizing the simultaneity of artistic trends in both countries, it proved the obvious: There is always an international lingua franca lingua franca (lĭng`gwə frăng`kə), an auxiliary language, generally of a hybrid and partially developed nature, that is employed over an extensive area by people speaking different and mutually unintelligible tongues in order to , usable by open-minded artists regardless of their nationality. But "Warsaw-Moscow/Moscow-Warsaw" spoke most poignantly when it dealt with art in a political context, touching the wounds of history and the lingering fears resulting from them, in both countries--for instance, the massacres of Polish officers by the Soviets during World War II, which was heavily emphasized in Warsaw. By doing so, the exhibition not only cast light on the complicated relationship between Poland and Russia during the twentieth century but also provided a superb panorama of works that, in a similar fashion, reacted to troubled times in two nations, ceaselessly caught in the political turmoil of their day. |
|
||||||||||||||||||

Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion