Over the last twenty years, in response to new challenges brought by the 1989 paradigm shift, the historical and geographical boundaries as well as the dominant narratives and hierarchies of Polish modernism have been radically redrawn. For a long time Poland’s modernism had been imagined through the prism of 19th century romantic-mythic Messianism, born of the loss of national sovereignty and the ensuing imperative to preserve the core values of the nation. The parade of great Polish masters became undistinguishable from the parade of rebels and martyrs.
Recent years have brought a major re-assessment of the landscape of Polish modernism and its interpretative strategies. Both frames of mind, the messianic lament and longing, as well as the pride in the modernist autonomy of art, have been problematised as underpinned by nationalism, patriarchal and masculinist ideologies, marginalising the contributions of women, Jews and other ethnic minorities. Moreover, the pre-eminence of Paris as the sole point of reference has been challenged by a new emphasis on other cultural centres, equally vital in the networks of Polish modernism, such as Vienna, Munich, Berlin and St Petersburg, as well as Stockholm, and last but not least, London and Glasgow. Even if Polish artists would rarely travel to Britain to study art, for many of them PreRaphaelitism, the radicalism of the Arts and Crafts movement, Aubrey Beardsley’s aestheticism, Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s art nouveau or, much later on, Henry Moore’s cyclopic bodies played a formative role. Likewise, recent Polish art history has been inspired by impulses coming from Britain and the US.
Conference organisers:
Kasia Murawska-Muthesius, Birkbeck College, University of London
k.murawska@fce.bbk.ac.uk
Andrzej Szczerski, Institute of Art History, Jagiellonian University, Kraków
szczersk@uj.edu.pl
Keynote speakers:
Zygmunt Bauman (University of Leeds, tbc)
Steven Mansbach (University of Maryland)
Agnieszka Morawi?ska (National Gallery of Art Zach?ta, Warsaw)
Confirmed speakers: Wojciech Ba?us, Anna Brzyski, Jan Cavanugh, Ella Chmielewska, Krzysztof Cieszkowski, Stanis?aw Czekalski, David Crowley, Tomasz Gryglewicz, Kris Van Heuckelom, Agata Jakubowska, Dominic Janes, Irena Kossowska, Jerzy Malinowski, Ursula Philips, Maria Poprz?cka, Alison Smith, Joanna Sosnowska, Ewa Toniak, Anna ?akiewicz.
The conference accompanies the display of Polish symbolist painting in Tate Britain (7 March – 22 June 2009), which focuses on the relationship between Polish and British art ca 1900.
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/symbolisminpolandandbritain/default.shtm
The exhibition, co-curated by Dr Alison Smith (Tate), Dr Andrzej Szczerski (Jagiellonian University) and Piotr Kopszak (National Museum in Warsaw) presents an opportunity to revisit the debates and to reflect on Polish modern discourses of rebellion and martyrdom within much wider spatial and chronological boundaries, reaching from the middle of the 19th century to the immediate post-1945 era. It offers a chance to assemble, in a cross-national and cross-disciplinary forum, renowned scholars from Poland, Britain and the US, whose provocative writings on modernism helped to rethink the image of Polish culture.
The conference is hosted by the School of Art History, Film and Visual Media, Birkbeck College, University of London (12-13 June), and will be held on Birkbeck’s Bloomsbury campus.
12 June: Lecture theatre B04 at 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H OPD
13 June: Lecture Theatre B01 at Clore Management Centre, LondonWC1 7HX
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/maps/interactive
For all inquiries, please email the conference organiser:
Dr Kasia Murawska-Muthesius, Birkbeck College, University of London
k.murawska@fce.bbk.ac.uk
Please note that the event is free, but booking is required.