Sculptural Bodies in Flux: Material and Ideological Transformation of Magdalena Więcek’s 'Miners' and Alina Szapocznikow’s 'Friendship'

• In Event: Art, Ideology, and Memory: Polish Artistic Practices in the Early Communist Era

Abstract

In 1954, Polish sculptor Magdalena Więcek won first prize at the IV All-Poland Exhibition of Plastic Arts for her sculpture "Miners", becoming the youngest and only female artist to achieve this distinction in the category of sculpture. The work was praised for its adherence to Socialist Realist principles but also criticized for its unconventional depiction of miners, challenging the idealized representation of strong, heroic proletarians. This paper explores the complex reception of "Miners" in 1950s Poland and its later rehabilitation in 2014, suggesting that contemporary interpretations have sanitized its Socialist Realist origins by bypassing its original ideological tensions. By analyzing "Miners" alongside another revitalized Socialist Realist sculpture, Alina Szapocznikow’s "Friendship" (also from 1954), I argue–using a disability studies framework–that the evolving reception of these works reflects the mutable legacy of Socialist Realism in Polish art history and how physical alterations made to these sculptures have diminished their perceived ideological threat.

Author

• Julia Kulon, U of Chicago