Brave New World. Marine Painting of the Communist Period in the Collection of the National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk
Paintings by Polish artists active after the World War II, including Kazimierz Śramkiewicz, Stanisław Chlebowski, Władysław Lam, Edward Dwurnik and many others can be seen from 30 October 2024 till 15 June 2025 in the Granaries on Ołowianka. Exhibition entitled “Brave New World” presents works from the collections of the National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk created in the times of the Polish People’s Republic. In addition to works known from previous collective and monographic exhibitions, the exhibition also features previously unseen works from the museum’s collection of Polish paintings from the second half of the 20th century.
The title of the exhibition is taken from Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel ‘Brave New World’. The British writer depicts in it a collectivized society in which individuals must submit to the collective and individuality is eradicated as a pathology. The novel was conceived as a critique of the capitalist society of the industrial era, conditioned for consumerism and conformity, but the suppression of individuality and the collectivisation of all aspects of life proved to be methods much more widely used by totalitarian regimes in Europe in the 20th century. They were characterized by the need to control every aspect of societies – from the economy and politics to religion and culture. It was in these conditions that the works presented at the exhibition were created. The collection they come from has been developed since the beginning of the Museum’s existence, i.e. since the 1960s. These works were acquired from the authors themselves, as well as at contemporary art fairs and in art galleries. Most of the presented paintings are works by artists associated with the State Higher School of Fine Arts, nowadays the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, works by artists active on the Coast but not associated with this university, as well as works by artists from other centres. At the exhibition, a counterpoint to these works is provided by single paintings by two artists who left Poland before the outbreak of the World War II and worked in completely different material and political conditions: Marek Żuławski and Michał Leszczyński-Lester.
The first part of the exhibition will cover the years 1945-1955 – the decade of the country’s post-war reconstruction and systemic transformation. The year 1945 also marked the beginnings of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, originally founded in Sopot, which was less devastated by the war. A few years later, socialist realism became the binding artistic doctrine in the Eastern Bloc, which postulated that a work of art should be “realistic in form and socialist in content.” This meant taking up topics related to work and the taming of nature by humans and rejecting formal experiments. Artists dealt with creating within this framework in various ways. The exhibition shows paintings from that period, including: fishermen returning from fishing, work at the docks, and a portrait of a fish gutter by Helena Żyrmont-Korklińska, with a significant title: ”Portrait of a Model Worker Citizen Hauptówna Elżbieta”, bearing on the reverse a certificate confirming that the portrayed woman exceeded the norm.
The second part of the exhibition is devoted to paintings created between 1956-1970, when, after the so-called ‘thaw’, i.e. the relaxation of the rigours imposed on society, it became possible to paint in the spirit of fashionable Western trends. Hence, the paintings presented here refer to abstraction and affect the viewer with colour, texture or geometric arrangement of forms rather than with narrative. This was the general spirit of the paintings by Kazimierz Śramkiewicz, Tadeusz Ciesiulewicz and Stanisław Michałowski, among others. In this section, the painting by Ignacy Klukowski, depicting the general cargo ship m.s. ‘Maria Konopnicka’ undergoing repairs at the Gdańsk Shipyard, has a symbolic meaning. The work was created just a few months before the tragic ship fire, which claimed the lives of 22 shipyard workers. The tragedy marked the end of this period. December 1970 saw protests by workers on the Coast against worsening living conditions, particularly food price rises. The protests were bloodily suppressed. They did result in a change at the top of government, but it was only a façade – power was taken over by a different faction within the same undivided ruling party, and the system remained unchanged.
The last part of the exhibition covers the period between 1970 and 1989. The 1970s were to be a decade of dynamic development for Poland, combined with a rise in the society’s living standard. However, this development was to take place within the framework of the existing political system, under which entire industry was managed by a centralised bureaucratic apparatus. One of the largest undertakings at the time was the construction of the Northern Port in Gdańsk, which was accompanied by a nationwide cultural campaign. In Gdańsk, the exhibition ‘Port Północny w sztuce’ (Northern Port in Art) was organized in the Abbots’ Palace, while three exhibitions related to the construction of the port were held at the ‘Sień Gdańska’ gallery. All the major artists from the Polish coast took part, including Władysław Lam, Zdzisław Kałędkiewicz and Stanisław Michałowski. Kazimierz Śramkiewicz dedicated a series of more than twenty paintings to the construction of the Northern Port. As is well known, the decade ended with workers’ protests that engulfed the entire country in August 1980. Although society’s strive for freedom was temporarily supressed by the martial law declared on 13 December 1981, the Solidarity movement initiated in August 1980 led to the collapse of communism in the Eastern Bloc within eight years. The symbol of this movement became the shipyard worker in the characteristic greyish blue work clothes and helmet, immortalised in Edward Dwurnik’s painting that concludes the exhibition.
Curator: Monika Jankiewicz-Brzostowska, PhD
Media patronage: Trojmiasto.pl, Radio Gdańsk, TVP3 Gdańsk
The sound effects used in the exhibition were created by UndergroundASMR
The exhibition is organised with the financial support of the Society of Friends of the National Maritime Museum
Brave New World. Marine Painting of the Communist Period in the Collection of the National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk
30.10.2024 – 15.06.2025
Granaries on Ołowianka