Warsaw-Moscow / Moscow-Warsaw 1900-2000

"Warsaw-Moscow. Moscow-Warsaw. 1900-2000" will be the third in a series of exhibitions exploring artistic connections between Moscow and other European capitals. The first, "Moscow-Paris. Paris- Moscow" was held in 1979, and the second, linking Moscow and Berlin, in 1996.

Work on the Polish-Russian exhibition began in the mid-1990s. In November 2004, the exhibition opened in the Polish capital. Now, "Moscow-Warsaw" has arrived at the Tretyakov Gallery on Krimsky.

“Warsaw-Moscow. Moscow-Warsaw. 1900-2000”
Designed by Gennady Sinev

The idea to hold this exhibition was put forward initially by the Polish art historian and gallery owner Piotr Nowicki. On the Polish side, the event is curated by the Adam Mick- iewicz Institute, an international centre of cultural cooperation. The main Russian partner is the State Tretyakov Gallery. The majority of Russian exhibits are drawn from the gallery's collection, although the State Russian Museum of St. Petersburg and the museums of Tula, Nizhny-Novgorod, Krasnodar and Ivanovo also loaned works for the event. The ROSIZO State Centre for Museums and Exhibitions of the Russian Ministry of Culture has been an active partner in the project.

The main partner on the Polish side, the Zacheta National Art Gallery hosted the first part of the event. Visitors to this Warsaw gallery were also able to view works loaned by the national museums of Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw and Poznan, as well as the Lodz Museum of Modern Art and the Plock, Gdansk, Czestochowa, Zakopane, Katowice and other museums. The exhibit-ion contains a number of works loaned by Polish and Russian artists, galleries and collectors.

"Warsaw-Moscow. Moscow-Warsaw’’ enjoys the patronage of the Russian and Polish presidents Vladimir Putin and Alexander Kwasniewski and numbers over 350 works. Created by around 250 Polish and Russian masters, these include not only paintings, but also sculptures, drawings, posters, photographs and modern art pieces.

The exhibition’s halls. Designed by Gennady Sinev

The deep differences which have divided Russia and Poland, in the last century in particular, have made for a difficult partnership. Nonetheless, the organisers of the event have tried to focus on both the obvious and hidden points that the two countries have in common, whilst also paying tribute to their fascinating and revealing differences. Curators attempted, above all, to portray objectively the development of art in both countries.

One of the motives behind the event was the public interest in Russian artists of Polish descent, notably Mikhail Vrubel and Kazimir Malevich. Another focus, a significant group in the history of Polish-Russian artistic connections is the Polish student "colony" which grew up in the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in the 1890s. These talented young artists played an important role in the life of the Academy and, indeed, in the whole turn-of-the-century arts scene of St. Petersburg. Later, they would prove a valuable addition to the artistic community of the Polish capital.

Polish and Russian artists were perhaps most closely linked at the beginning of the last century. Symbolism was an important trend for both schools, and the art of Mikhail Vrubel served to inspire a great many Polish symbolist painters. The symbolist theme connected Valentin Serov and Jozef Mehoffer, Viktor Borisov-Musatov and Wojciech Weiss, Witold Wojtkiewicz and Kazimierz Stabrowski. The "World of Art’ group was another artistic bridge between the two countries. The first "World of Art" exhibition included Ferdynand Ruszczyc's "Earth" - a Polish masterpiece. The painter and art critic Stanislaw Noakowski wrote for the "World of Art" magazine, which also published polemical debates between Diaghilev and Stabrowski.

Stanislaw WYSPIANSKI. Polonia. 1894
Pastel on paper. 320 by 193. National Museum, Krakow

Around the turn of the century, the most important Polish art centre was Krakow. The exhibition may be named "Moscow-Warsaw", yet it is, naturally, impossible to imagine Polish art of that period without Krakow, as it would be ridiculous to discuss contemporary Russian art without naming St. Petersburg. In 1891, Krakow saw the emergence of the Young Poland artistic movement. This was the city in which Stanislaw Wyspianski, the reformer of Polish art, lived and worked. The symbolist Jacek Malczewski was also connected with Krakow.

Jacek MALCZEWSKI. On One String (Self-Portrait), 1908
Oil on cardboard. 97 by 99 cm. National Museum, Warsaw

In Russia, as in Poland, the first quarter of the 20th century was a time of bold artistic experiment. Polish artists such as Zygmunt Waliszewski, Felicjan Kowarski, Boleslaw Cybis and Wladyslaw Strzeminski, whose lives were at that time connected with Russia, found themselves immersed in a constantly changing, vital and dynamic cultural environment. Russia also played a crucial role in the life and artistic development of Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz - the Polish painter, philosopher, art critic, photographer and writer. Known in Poland as Witkacy, this outstanding master produced many works of art and literature similar in tone to the compositions of Russian symbolist and avant-garde artists.

The main theme uniting contemporary Polish artists was that of patriotism. The symbolist movement gave ample opportunities to explore this theme in art. Created in 1918, Malczewski's "Polonia (An Allegory of Poland)" shows Poland as a beautiful woman, a soldier's greatcoat thrown over her shoulders. 1918 was, of course, the
year Poland regained her independence, no longer to be divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria. A number of Polish artists such as Noakowski and Zukowski returned to their homeland as a result. The son of a Polish man exiled after participating in the uprising of 1863, Stanislaw Zukowski belonged to the traditional Russian school of painting.

In 1922, Wladyslaw Strzeminski and Katarzyna Kobro, avant-garde artists close to Kazimir Malevich, left Russia to return to Poland. In their own country, they became the proponents of constructivism. The life and work of Malevich, a Russian artist of Polish descent, is a key theme in the "Moscow-Warsaw" exhibition. His "Black Square" of 1929 caused a real revolution in the world of art, marking the advent of abstract painting. In 1927 Malevich visited Poland and Germany. His works were shown in the Polonia hotel in Warsaw: this exhibition was to have a massive effect on the development of Polish avant-garde art.

At that time, avant-garde tendencies were already evident in Poland. The first Polish constructivist group, "Block", was founded by Strzeminski, Kobro, Henryk Stazewski, Mieczyslaw Szczuka and others in 1924. This existed until 1926, its members avidly studying work by Russian colleagues.

The "Black Square" joined and was followed by a whole string of Russian and Polish suprematist and constructivist works. Popova, Rozanova, Stepanova, Exter, Medunetsky, Suyetin, Kudryashov, Rodchenko, Klyun, Udaltsova, Baranov-Rossine, as well as Malevich's pupils Leporskaya and Chashnik are but some of the painters involved in these movements. Among Polish artists we should name Strzeminski with his "Architectonic" and "Unistic" compositions of the late 1920s-early 1930s, Kobro and her coloured metal "Space Compositions" from 1928-33 and the eminent masters Stazewski, Szczuka, Pronaszko and Podsadecki.

The art of Malevich, his theories, personality and dramatic life have played an enormous role in the development of Russian and Polish modern art. The "Black Square" remains a revolutionary milestone in artistic thought. The numerous artists of the second half of the 20th century who, in their work, constantly refer back to Malevich and Strzeminski, are gathered together in the exhibition under the heading "Around Malevich".

The 1920s and 30s in Poland saw innovative new art created by the Formist group, founded in 1917. The exhibitions held by the group between 1917 and 1921 included work by major Polish contemporary artists, many of whom were deeply influenced by Russian masters.

The neoclassical tendencies typical of Ludomir Slendzinski, who had studied at the Russian Academy of Arts under Dmitry Kardovsky, liken this artist to Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin and Zinaida Serebryakova. There are also obvious connections between the art of Konchalovsky and Falk, on the one hand, and Pronaszko, Niesiolowski and Fedkowicz, on the other.

1927 saw not only the Malevich exhibition in Warsaw, but also Mayakovsky's visit to Poland. Soon after, the exchange between the Russian and Polish avant-garde began to dwindle, later ceasing altogether. Between the wars, Polish and Russian art parted company. In Russia, the avant-garde gave way to Socialist Realism as the war on formalism in art was waged. In Poland, the 1930s also marked a departure from radicalism: avant-garde artists returning from Russia were seen as supporters of Communism and generally distrusted. As a result, Polish leftwing art of that period is less vivid and striking than that produced in Russia. Nonetheless, the Krakow group formed in 1931 followed the traditions of European avant-garde, proving popular after the Second World War.

In the 1920s and 30s, both Russians and Poles met with huge success at international exhibitions. The Polish pavilion at the 1 925 International Decorative Art Exhibition in Paris was hailed as one of the best, with Polish artists and craftsmen receiving a total of 172 awards. Russia's triumph at that event is remembered to this day. At the Paris World Exhibition of 1937, Vera Mukhina decorated the Soviet pavilion with her monumental sculpture "The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman", whilst the Polish artist and sculptor Xawery Dunikowski took the Grand Prix.

1933 witnessed an important modern art exhibition exchange between Moscow and Warsaw, also hosted by the Zacheta and Tretyakov galleries. Our current exhibition includes works by a number of artists represented at that event: Boleslaw Cybis, Ludomir Slendzinski, Rafal Malczewski, Romuald Witkowski and Xawery Dunikowski. The early 1930s saw a brief resumption of cultural connections bet-ween the two countries: Sergei Prokofiev visited Warsaw on tour, whilst Karol Szymanowski came to Moscow. By 1937-38, however, virtually all links had been severed.

An important theme of the "Warsaw- Moscow. Moscow-Warsaw" exhibition is the Second World War. In the Zacheta gallery, the "Polish" and "Russian" wars were addressed in separate sections: so differently do the two peoples view this tragic event. To any Russian, Plastov's "Fascist Passing" and Laktionov's "Letter from the Front", Deineka's "Moscow Suburb. November 1941" and Popkov's "Father's Greatcoat" speak volumes. No longer merely Socialist Realism, they have become monuments to their people's war effort and part of Russia's wartime legacy.

For the Poles, however, the war conjures only memories of pain. The division of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939; Europe's betrayal; the massacre of Polish officers at Katyn; the Holocaust; the quelling of the Warsaw uprising in 1944... Many Polish artists were killed or sent to concentration camps, yet their spirit could not be extinguished. Xawery Dunikowski, one of the best-known Polish 20th-century artists, spent five years in Auschwitz. In 1950, after his release, he created "Christmas in Auschwitz, 1944". The gallows, like a nightmarish Christmas tree, stands glowing in the beams of searchlights. One of the most powerful images in the exhibition, this work embodies the Polish view of the war.

In the post-war period, the cultural life of socialist countries was chiefly governed by Stalinist policy; the demands placed on Soviet art affected Polish painters too. For Polish-Russian cultural links, this was a complicated time.

The banning of the First Modern Art Exhibition of 1948 clearly heralded the advent of a new cultural policy for Poland. Organised by Tadeusz Kantor and the Krakow Young Artists' Group, this event is considered to mark the birth of Polish modern art. Socialist Realism did not survive in Poland for long, neither was it actively espoused by Polish artists. The 1955 "Against War, Against Fascism" exhibition in the Warsaw Arsenal - an appeal by young artists for freedom in art - is generally seen as the end of Socialist Realism in Poland.

The 1962 exhibition in Moscow's Manezh was in a similar vein. Despite their lack of communication, Polish and Russian artists were clearly battling with the same issues. "Warsaw-Moscow. Moscow-Warsaw" finally brings together Russian and Polish works of the period, highlighting this virtual dialogue.

Around that time, Soviet realist art was also beginning to change. Young painters sought to develop a new medium of expression - a new language. The austere style of the 1960s is perhaps best exemplified by such works as Nikonov's "Geologists", Andronov's "Raftsmen" and Popkov's "Builders of Bratsk". Similarly, it would be impossible to imagine Russian art of the 1970s without the paintings of Natalya Nesterova and Tatiana Nazarenko.

In Poland, however, figurative and realist painting, thematic work in particular, were seen as overly conformist. Polish art tended towards abstract, conceptual exploration. For this reason, perhaps, Russian art of the second half of the century was ill understood in Poland. Immersed in unofficial art, the Poles appeared unable to comprehend trends which were neither abstract nor "underground".

The Polish section of the Exhibition of Socialist States held in the Moscow Manezh in late 1958 clearly showed that Polish art had retained a certain degree of independence from socialist canons. In Poland, modernism reigned supreme. The Polish abstract works presented for the exhibition aroused huge interest in the event and Polish culture in general among Russian artistic circles and the public at large.

The first exhibitions of unofficial Russian art which took place in Zielona Gora, Sopot and Poznan in 1965 and 1966 likewise proved immensely popular. The Lianozovo group and Fellowship of Surrealist Artists taking part in these events were seen as the new Russian avant-garde.

In Russia, Poland was viewed as a country with links to the "outside world". Interest in all things Polish was constantly augmented by films, magazines, books and records from that country. Culture bridges the two peoples in the installation with interiors of Polish and Russian intellectuals' homes from the 1960s or 70s. The Russian set features music from Maryla Rodowicz and Anna German, Polish posters and piles of much-read Polish magazines. The Polish interior boasts a good collection of Russian "samizdat" in Polish translation: Bukovsky, Zamyatin, Voinovich, Mandelstam, Chukovskaya, Berdiayev, Brodsky, Nabokov, Akhmatova's "Requiem", "The Gulag Archipelago". Songs by Okudzhava and Vysotsky can be heard in the background. Russian culture appeared to Poles to reflect examples of noble, stern courage and exceptional human dignity.

Zofia KULIK. The Greatness of Oneself, version IIIb. 2002
Photocomposition. 180 by 150 cm. ING Polish Art Foundation

The 1960s and 70s in Poland were a time of constant conflict between the authorities and civil society. Between 1981 and 1983, all unions of arts workers, including the Polish Artists' Union, were closed down. Polish art became increasingly isolated. This repression served only to arouse social protest as artists and, indeed, the majority of the public embraced an "underground" existence. In these difficult conditions, a new generation of painters was formed. The "Group" founded in Warsaw in 1983, which included Ryszard Grzyb, Pawel Kowalewski, Jaroslaw Modzelewski, Wlodzimierz Pawlak, Marek Sobczyk and Ryszard Wozniak, was one of the best known artistic circles of that period.

The late 1980s, however, marked the beginning of a new phase in Russian-Polish cultural relations. Contemporary artists were able to discover much common ground. Along with "Warsaw-Moscow", in late 2004 the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art held another event, "Beyond the Red Horizon", which included Polish and Russian art from the previous decade. Works of the 1990s reflected the exchange finally taking place between young artists in the two countries: a natural, creative dialogue untainted by politics.

A fitting final crescendo in the "Warsaw-Moscow" exhibition was provided by Katarzyna Kozyra's animated video piece, "The Rite of Spring". Created between 1999 and 2002, this is based on Stravinsky's ballet. In 1913, Sergei Diaghilev and the "Ballets Russes" staged this work with choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky and costumes and sets by Nikolai Roerich. As Anda Rottenberg put it, 'The dance which, early this century, was a dance of life has now, at the century's close, become the dance of death. Kozyra has shown the end of the 20th century."

With the passing of the last century, it seems, the long period of misunderstanding between Poles and Russians has also come to an end. The organisers of the "Moscow-Warsaw" exhibition had in mind a number of additional cultural initiatives which would have turned the event into a real festival of Polish and Russian culture. One such idea involved a virtual reconstruction of Malevich's 1927 exhibition in the Polonia hotel. The current event, large as it is, could not, however, include all the projects put forward. Let us hope, then, that the next few years will see many more Polish-Russian cultural initiatives become reality.