The legacy of Constructivism in Poland: Geometric abstraction before and behind the Iron Curtain
Item
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Title
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The legacy of Constructivism in Poland: Geometric abstraction before and behind the Iron Curtain
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:6f6927683fd8:10051
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identifier
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10008
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Creator
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Kawalko, Karolina,
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Contributor
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Rose Carol Washton Long
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Date
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2009
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Art history | European history | geometric abstraction | konstruktywizm | Stazewski
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Abstract
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This dissertation situates the legacy of Constructivism in Polish painting during the 1920s and in the mid-1950s, both before and behind the Iron Curtain. The material and ideological conditions of geometric abstract art are examined within the context of the East and West and across the pre- and postwar divide. I address the troubled reception of Constructivism through the prism of the artist Henryk Stazewski (1894--1988), one of the key contributors to the history of Polish art before and after World War II. If during the prewar years Stazewski attempted to invest painting with collective, universal, and international force, in the postwar period he choreographed the process of reception by exhibiting his works at home. I argue that Stazewski was aware of the ambivalent status and depoliticization of geometric art rooted in Constructivist aesthetic, and wanted to restore its socially constructive and political dimension by -- paradoxically -- isolating himself in an already isolated state.;While geometric abstract art can be defined and interpreted in many different ways, I examine it in Eastern Europe's specific historical circumstances and anlayze how it became a symbol of resistance and dissent against totalitarian regime. Since abstract art was perceived as "autonomous," and thus unrelated to contemporary social and political events, geometric abstraction, in contrast to the politically engaged Socialist Realism, signified not only a certain kind of freedom but also political opposition during the years of Stalinism. Despite the official hostility and frequent critical denunciation of geometric abstraction as both outmoded and apolitical, this art was in fact a powerful vehicle for affecting political change.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Art History
