6 Top World Museum Collections Featuring Works by Polish Artists
The 1990s in Polish contemporary art meant the rise of such artists as Paweł Althamer, Katarzyna Kozyra and Mirosław Bałka – whose works are now in many famous museum collections worldwide. Here are some great collections worth a visit for the remarkable Polish art they feature.
Under the communist regime, it was difficult for artists to be included in exhibitions abroad and therefore to gain international recognition. There were some exceptions: artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz and Alina Szapocznikow showed their works in Italy and France in the early 1960s, and Edward Dwurnik’s art was presented at Documenta 7 in Kassel, seven years before the fall of the Iron Curtain.
In 1989, the democratic transition took place – and from that very moment, Polish artists have had more opportunities to show their art abroad than ever before. As they began to take the international art world by storm, they developed a strong presence in museum collections worldwide.
Our ranking, though certainly not comprehensive (because of the great number of collections that include Polish art!), will give you a glimpse of what can be found in museum collections abroad. Focussing on six different Western institutions, it is a short guide to most appreciated Polish artists, renowned in the international art world. As you’ll see, there’s a lot to be proud of.
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View over the River Thames and the Tate Modern art gallery in London, England, United Kingdom, photo: Mike Kemp / In Pictures via Getty Images Images
Tate Modern is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the world. Located in the Bankside area of London, in a former power station, Tate’s collection holds works by many celebrated Polish artists.
At Tate, amongst many other pieces done by Poles, one can find photographs of Polish factories taken by the post-war photographer Tadeusz Sumiński. His works depict the beauty hidden within the industrial environment and depict an important moment in the country’s post-war history, when industrialisation became a priority to boost the economy.
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'Fabryka M5 we Wrocławiu' by Tadeusz Sumiński, 1962, photo: courtesy of Asymetria
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'How It Is' by Miroslaw Balka, installation, displayed at Turbine Hall of The Tate Modern on October 12, 2009, London, photo: by Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
Another Polish artwork, Pavilion by Monika Sosnowska, was acquired by Tate in 2016.
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'Pavilion', by Monika Sosnowska, 2016, painted steel, © Monika Sosnowska, purchased with funds provided by the Russia and Eastern Europe, photo: © Tate Modern
2. Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York
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The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, photo: by Noam Galai / WireImage / GettyImages
MoMA is often identified as one of the most influential museums of modern art in the world. It holds a massive collection of more than 150,000 pieces of art and has a huge number of artworks made by more than 20 Poles. That makes it one of the biggest collections of Polish art in a museum abroad.
3. Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris
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Centre Pompidou, photo: flickr.com
Next stop on our museum tour is the Parisian Centre Georges Pompidou. The famous building, designed in its characteristic high-tech style, is home to a collection of more than 100,000 works. There, you can find not only works by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Alina Szapocznikow, Althamer or Opałka, but also by the prominent sculptor Katarzyna Kobro and the feminist art pioneer Natalia LL. Additionally, Centre Georges Pompidou’s collection features works by Franciszka Themerson, the painter, illustrator and stage designer who worked with her husband, Stefan Themerson, on experimental films.
4. Moderna Museet in Stockholm
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Moderna Museet Moderna Museet (the Museum of Modern Art), Stockholm, Sweden, photo: Åsa Lundén / Moderna Museet
Stockholm’s Moderna Museet opened in 1958, and since then, it has managed to build an art collection comprising more than 130,000 works in various media. It also has an impressive amount of works by Polish artists, especially painters, including Leon Tarasewicz, Nikifor, Maria Anto and Aleksander Kobzdej. Amongst them, Moderna Museet has acquired pieces by Władysław Hasior, one of the leading Polish contemporary sculptors, as well as the revolutionary set designer and theatre director Tadeusz Kantor.
Moderna Museet also has the feminine version of Katarzyna Kozyra’s Bathhouse, a work which critiques standards of beauty in the arts. The masculine version of the piece represented Poland during the Venice Biennale in 1999 and received an honourable mention for challenging the authoritarian domain of maleness.
5. Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (MOCA)
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The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, MOCA, photo: by Elon Schoenholz, courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Los Angeles’ MOCA was established in 1979 and houses one of the most compelling collections of contemporary art in the world. It also has works by Abakanowicz, Szapocznikow and Bałka, what only shows the prominent position these artists occupy on the international stage. Amongst these, its collection is also home to works by Tadeusz Kantor and Stanisław Dróżdż, a pioneer of concrete poetry in Polish art. Painters such as Zbigniew Gostomski, who co-founded the Foksal Gallery in 1966, and Zdzisław Jurkiewicz are also represented.
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'Między' by Stanisław Dróżdż, installation, 1977/2004, photo: Rafał Sosin / MOCAK Muzeum Sztuki Współczesnej w Krakowie
6. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York
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Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, photo: Jean-Christophe BENOIST / Wikimedia.org
The Guggenheim Museum in New York, located in one of the most iconic buildings of the 20th century, is founded upon several private collections. In its New York’s branch, the visitors can find works by four contemporary Polish artists: Paweł Althamer, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Wilhelm Sasnal and Piotr Uklański.
When it comes to Althamer, the Guggenheim has 18 works from his series Almech, which was a commission for the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin. In the series, Althamer transformed the museum space into a plastic factory and developed a sculpture workshop there.
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Installation view, ‘Pawel Althamer: Almech’, Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, October 28, 2011-January 16, 2012, photo: Mathias Schormann / Guggenheim Museum
Uklański’s work in the Guggenheim collection is his famous ‘Dance Floor, a 1996 installation designed as a space for social interaction.
Written by Maria Markiewicz, Aug 2019, edited by LD, Jun 2020
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