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

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Following the end of World War II, Polish artists faced profound social and political changes, as well as widespread physical destruction. Operating within state-controlled ideological frameworks of the emerging totalitarian regime, they tackled the complex and onerous task of reconstructing and reframing national memory and identity in post-1945 Poland. This panel examines artistic practices in Poland from the late 1940s to the 1960s—a period spanning Bierut’s Stalinist rule to Gomułka’s rise amid Khrushchev’s Thaw—exploring the impact of Socialist Realism, the interplay between craft and industry, the role of political memory, and the commemoration of the avant-garde. These influences, as our panel illustrates, stemmed both from the artists' individual agency and the constraints of their institutional environments. The presentations investigate how Polish art and design in the mid-20th century both preserved and challenged ideological boundaries in early communist Poland. In doing so, they examine how artists navigated the intersection of personal autonomy, state mandates, and rapidly evolving cultural frameworks, reflecting broader concerns of memory, identity, and transformation within Polish society and in international exhibitions of Polish art.

Sub Unit

• Arts I: Visual Culture, Material Culture, Applied and Fine Arts

Chair

• Alina Orlova, U of Chicago

Papers

• Sculptural Bodies in Flux: Material and Ideological Transformation of Magdalena Więcek’s 'Miners' and Alina Szapocznikow’s 'Friendship' - Julia Kulon, U of Chicago

• Reconciling Two Cultural Milieus: Henryk Berlewi’s Return to Abstraction - Weronika Malek-Lubawski, U of Southern California

• Historicity and Modern Craft: Wanda Telakowska and the Institute for Industrial Design - Jason Mientkiewicz, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Specters of Stalinism: Public Art and Political Memory in 1948 Poland - Patryk Tomaszewski, CUNY Graduate Center

Discussant

• Eliza Rose, UNC at Chapel Hill