The group was established in late summer or autumn 1929 in Lviv, and its name (proposed by Janish) was supposed to symbolise the idea of the integration of all fields of art. The first Artes exhibition was held in 1930 at the headquarters of the Lviv Society of the Friends of Fine Arts. Apart from its three founders, Roman Sielski, Margit Reichówna, Ludwik Tyrowicz and Tadeusz Wojciechowski took part in it. Apart from paintings and drawings, projects were also presented there. As reviewers pointed out, although the work of Artes artists was varied in nature, it was connected by a departure from naturalism and a turn towards modern trends, as well as a fascination with French art, especially the work of Fernand Legèr and the Surrealists.
The critics’ opinions about the show were contradictory and there were also voices of indignation, which is why Janish, on behalf of the group, decided to publish a text-manifesto in Słowo Polskie under the telling title Why Painting Is Different Now? In the text, he expressed his enthusiasm for current phenomena in art, including French surrealism, and stressed the role of the emotional element in creativity. In fact, the works of Artes artists did not show any deeper links to the art of the surrealists.
Admittedly, some iconographic motifs or ways of imaging were taken over, but without basic theoretical assumptions concerning the expression of the internal model or the role of psychical automatism. The works presented at the exhibition were rather dominated by classicist and ‘naïve’ realism, as well as post-impressionism. In architectural designs, both decorative stylisation and cautious, moderate constructivism were present. After this first show, Ludwik Lille, Otto Hahn, Henryk Streng, Aleksander Riemer joined the group, while Wysocki left it.
The years 1930 to 1932 were the period of the most intensive activity for the group. During this time, Artes organised eleven exhibitions: six in Lviv, two in Warsaw, and single shows in Kraków, Stanisławów and Tarnopol. The publication of collections of lithographic reproductions of the works was also initiated, the first of which, containing nine illustrations, was published in 1930, while the planned second one was cancelled. The group did not develop a common artistic programme during this period; it was still characterised by aesthetic pluralism and accepted attitudes far removed from the experience of the avant-garde. The term surrealism was used more and more often. It was used by the artists to describe Janish's grotesque and fancy compositions, Streng's paintings, in which surprising juxtapositions of abstract forms with real shapes emerged, and some photomontages by Aleksander Krzywobłocki, Sielska and Janish. Undoubtedly, the members of the group were united by a certain general anti-aesthetic attitude, seeking inspiration outside the sanctioned artistic traditions in the iconosphere of the city, which included painted shop signs or carefully arranged shop windows.
Primitivism, which manifested in various ways in the art of the first decades of the 20th century, related to various programmes of European art renewal and was clearly visible in the paintings of Streng or Janish. Artists looking for modern forms of imaging turned to sources not yet exploited by culture, such as children's work, African art and, in the case of Polish art, folk crafts. Since the time of the Formists, the interest in folklore manifested itself not only in the content, but above all it influenced the form of the works. Attempts were made to find an adequate language of representation for the new subject matter; therefore, these image sources were tapped into.
Urban folklore and provincial creativity were therefore not only a source of iconographic motifs for the creators of Artes, but also provided inspiration for formal solutions. Elements and ways of presentation were consciously introduced into the composition, which gave the impression of clumsy or naïve technique. Also, the element of irony or grotesque in the works of painters should be associated with an interest in provincial themes rather than in the art of the Surrealists. Through the combination of these various inspirations, an interesting variety of metaphorical and allusive art was created, full of references to the surrounding everyday life, while simultaneously drawing on various trends of modernity.
In the 1930s, the attitudes of Artes artists were ideologically radicalised. At an exhibition in Garliński's Salon in Warsaw, Ludwik Lille presented constructivist compositions, and in the catalogue accompanying the show he postulated autonomy, but also logic and functionality of artistic means of expression. At the same time, left-wing involvement was increasing among the artists. In their texts, Henryk Streng and Otto Hahn stressed the role of the painter as an observer of the surrounding social reality. These views were reflected in the second period of the group's activity between 1933 and 1936, although Artes' activity clearly decreased at that time. In 1933, the artists constituting the ‘left wing’ of the association, Hahn, Janish, Streng, Riemer and Krzywobłocki, made an attempt to transform the group into ‘Neoartes’, but it ended in failure. Soon, the group, which appeared under its former name, started to operate within the Lviv Trade Union of Artists established in 1932.
At the exhibitions of the Association, the artists continued to present works that took up themes of surrealism, but in their studios, they made their first attempts to break this pattern and work out a common programme. To this end, they announced a survey on the ‘new realism’ and the social role of art, addressed to all members of the Association. On the basis of the survey, Tadeusz Wojciechowski tried to develop the programme assumptions of the so-called realistic constructivism. Streng proposed ‘factual realism’, about which he wrote in 1936:
There is no specific form of expression yet. It wants to exploit all the achievements up until now, as long as they can serve a purpose. [...] Its task is to express a truly new, emerging world because it already contains a true achievement: new content. That is why new realism refers to the forces coming from the lower class, to organised masses of workers and peasants, because this class and its assumptions are the avant-garde of the new culture.
Social issues have been reflected in the work of almost all the Artes artists and have given coherence to their activities in the final period of the group's activity. In 1936, several artists, including Sielscy and Wojciechowski, moved away to colourism, which was popular in Lviv, while a year later, Lille, the long-time president of the association, left for France and did not return to Poland. The final loosening of ties and the disappearance of the sense of community of artistic search around 1936 caused Artes to cease to exist, although it was never formally disbanded.
Originally written in Polish by Magdalena Wróblewska, December 2010, translated into English by P. Grabowski, December 2020
