Decolonizations
Artists: Art Workers’ Coalition, Przemysław Branas, Sam Goodman, Wolfgang Frankenstein, Astrid Klein, Grzegorz Kowalski, Jarosław Kozłowski, Piotr Kunce, Yayoi Kusama, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Alfred Lenica, Boris Lurie, Leandro Mbomio Nsue, Ulrike Ottinger , Grupa SAB, Nancy Spero, Andrzej Strumiłło, Jerzy Ryszard „Jurry” Zieliński, Wolf Vostell, György Kemény, Emilio Vedova, Frémez, Alfredo Juan Rostgaard Gonzáles, Phan Thông, Pham Háo, Borys Reszetnikow
Exhibition curators: Dorota Jarecka, Paulina Olszewska
14.05-24.07.2022
Galeria Studio
Plac Defilad 1, PKiN
Warsaw
Photo: Anna Zagrodzka
Collaboration: Boris Lurie Art Foundation, New York, Wolf Vostell Estate
Artworks loaned from: Boris Lurie Art Foundation, New York, The Wolf Vostell Estate, Ulrike Ottinger, Sprüth Magers, Galerie Lelong & Co, Kunstsammlung Pankow, Berlin, Grzegorz Król, Grzegorz Kowalski, Jarosław Kozłowski, Pola Magnetyczne Gallery, Muzeum Plakatu – Oddział Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie, Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi.
The American invasion of Vietnam in 1964 sparked the world-wide protests. The culture of dissent that emerged in the Western liberal democracies in the aftermath of the event, and which led to the revolt of May 1968, has been a subject of a broad research. However the impact of the Vietnam War and the global decolonization process on the artistic circles in socialist countries is not widely known. Since 1945, the conflict in Indochina was closely observed in the Eastern Bloc. In Poland, the official line of the anti-colonial policy was manifested at the Wrocław Peace Congress in 1948. This policy was based on a binary differences between East and West, socialism and imperialism (often equated with fascism). In our show we will turn the attention to the 1960s, and 1970s when artists in Poland started to look for a common platform with their Western counterparts. When confronting the theme of decolonization they used Pop-Art and Conceptual Art as a medium of communication. Avoiding the official propaganda language they tended to express their protest and dissent, stressing however strongly their left wing positions.
In our show we will present the artworks by German, French, Cuban, and American artists along with the art created in Poland. The works by Wolf Vostell (Olympiade 1-4, 1972), by Ulrike Ottinger (Journée d’un G.I., 1967), and the Astrid Klein’s installation (Untitled, 1993) will be presented along with the works by Boris Lurie, Nancy Spero, Yayoi Kusama, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Sam Goodman, Jarosław Kozłowski, Andrzej Strumiłło, Alfred Lenica, and the SAB group.
Exhibition brochure available here.
Exhibition catalogue available here.