The exhibition spans a wide array of works by Witkacy through Kozyra, Bałka and Althamer. A collection of Magdalena Abakanowicz's works, unique at the global scale, will be the pride of the new gallery.
Idea behind the new exhibition
The exhibition of Polish contemporary art in a new place will be a chronological presentation, and will include works which were created in the period from World War I to the present moment. "When it comes to the inter-war period, we opted for very good works" - says Mariusz Hermansdorfer, exhibition custodian and director of the National Museum in Wrocław - "I resigned from showing minor works of great artists, as it used to happen so far. In the case of World War II, I will expand the works already presented and try to show the greatest artists in the maximum scope. The chronological model will thus be connected with individual presentations, enclaves of individual artists will be created." The collection was built when the museum was buying large sets of works of great post-war artists, constituting smaller or bigger retrospectives (Lebenstein, Nowosielski, Hasior, Jerema). The director also intends to devote a large space to artists important to the city, the ones who determined the shape of art in Wrocław. Works of Geppert, Mazurkiewicz, Jurkiewicz or Hałas were, due to the lack of space, limited to 2-3 paintings. Now their presentations will be two or three times bigger. The exhibition will be dominated by paintings. It will include sculptures and there will be a special section for the presentation of glass and ceramics.
Abakanowicz halls
A very special place will be occupied by an extraordinary collection of works of a globally renowned Polish sculptress Magdalena Abakanowicz. The National Museum in Wrocław has the biggest collection of the artist's works in Europe – it will be presented in as many as three rooms which will constitute a separate entirety and close the whole exposition. On the occasion of the inauguration of the Gallery in the Attic, the artist gave the famous Abakans – multi-element compositions which revolutionised the art of artistic fabrics – to the Museum, before that they had been in the Museum's deposit. She gave up the flat form of fabrics, common at that time, and formed her works in the shape of a relief and later three-dimensional sculpture.
Organiser: Wrocław National Museum