Maria Pinińska-Bereś, "De-konstrukcja krzywej wieży 2" / Deconstruction of a Crooked Tower 2" from the collection of the Zachęta National Gallery of Art. Photo: Jan Gładykowski
The exhibition presents the work of three major female artists, considered pioneers of feminine art in Poland: Ewa Partum, Natalia Lach-Lachowicz and Maria Pinińska-Bereś. From the 1970s onwards, the trio has been linked by a similar quest marked by a clear feminist intuition or an identification with feminism. This is the first time the works of all three artists are set alongside one another as a group show
The names are all quite well-recognised in the realm of contemporary art, having left indelible impressions through their active participation in vivid, daring forms of action and performance, mainly throughout the 1970s. Today these remain in the form of photographic and video documentation.
Among the three, Ewa Partum most closely identified with the ideals of feminism. As early as the 1970s she presented vocal manifestos on the discrimination of women and the call for equal rights. Natalia LL, on the other hand, has recouped the feminist discourse of the west and reconsidered it through her own characteristic aesthetic and message. She took feminism and played with its notions, juxtaposing them against traditional notions of the beautiful and the unseemly, the sexual and the repugnant, the submissive and the dominant, the good and the wicked. Marii Pinińska-Bereś also explores various facets of female sexuality with what critics have called a precursor to feminist art of the west. These soft, pink forms have characteristics that are at once alluring - drawing the viewer in and inviting his or her touch - and repulsive with its porcine-hued, heavily organic blobs.
The title of the exhibition refers to the first manifesto of feminist art in Poland - the presentation of Three Women in Poznań's Arsenał gallery in 1978. It was an event that marked the beginnings of a very strong art movement that culminated in the 1990s. The works presented span the most important moments in the artists' respective careers, made mostly in the 1990s and after 2000 - with a conscious reference to earlier works, mainly of the 1970s. The exhibition also includes documentation and archive materials from the 1970s and '80s.
The exhibition has been put together by Ewa Toniak, whose work specialisese in feminist art in Poland, with set designer Małgorzata Szczęśniak creating the overall concept for the show.
The exhibition is accompanied with a catalogue which features new takes on the works of all three artists, along with a rich programme of lectures, discussions and films throughout the duration of the exhibition. The programme sets out to illustrate the beginnings of women's art in Poland, its reception in the socialist era and its ties to feminism in the West.
Curator: Ewa Toniak
The exhibition opens February 28, 2011 at 19:00 and runs through May 8, 2011
Zachęta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki
Plac Małachowskiego 3, 00-916 Warszawa
tel. (+48 22) 827 58 54, 556 96 00
link*www.zacheta.art.pl*http://www.zacheta.art.pl/en****Source: press release