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ARTBARBAKAN
- History
Today, no one seems to be surprised to see artists displaying their works in the streets of the Old Town in Warsaw. On our Sunday outings, we stroll by, somewhat indifferent and well accustomed to the presence of painters and their wares - a fragment of the natural folklore, indissoluble connected with the district. In this particular case, it would be rather difficult to speak about high art worthy of gallery showrooms - house walls and easels feature the proverbial "monarch of the glen", souvenirs from Warsaw and unsuccessful attempts at emulating the manner of the better-known local and world creators. There was a time when the lanes surrounding the Old Town Market Square brimmed with valuable compositions by young, original and creative artists, who demonstrated their workshop prowess. At the beginning of the 1960s, the then empty and gray streets of the Old Town and the walls of the Barbican were annexed by up to twenty young artists (i.e. Kupczyński, Popielarczyk, Smolarek), together with the later founders of the "Niezależni" (Independent) group.
Unfortunately, this spontaneous campaign, regularly repeated during the summer seas of 1962-1967, was not enthusiastically welcomed by the authorities (after all, it evaded official control) and colleagues (it differed from the art propagated and acknowledged by the Academy of Fine Arts). An additionally detrimental fact was that the painters dared to offer their canvases for sale, while the official definition of an artist assumed that he was to work exclusively for the sake of the creative act itself and not for material profits. Not a single note about the exhibitions organized in the Barbican appeared in the local newspapers, on television or in radio programs. In 1967 the municipal authorities forbade independent artists to conduct further exhibits in this part of Warsaw. Subsequently, the majority of the painters, some no longer alive, became scattered throughout the world, always, however, cherishing the memory of those early years. All were highly esteemed by the critics and the public, also abroad, but never returned the picturesque lanes of the Old Town and the Barbican.
Fortunately, two participants of those exhibitions, co-founders of the "Niezależni 6 Warsaw Group of Painters, which was established in 1969 and exists up to this day, decided to remind the residents of Warsaw and visitors about the shows. For the fourth time, in the course of almost three summer months, starting with mid-June, we shall have an opportunity to admire the works of artists from Mazovia and foreign contributors in assorted "Artbarbakan" exhibitions held in the Old Town and the City. The Fundacja-Artbarbakan-Warszawa foundation, created by Lassota and Miron, organizes summertime gallery and plain-air shows and, first and foremost, restores former splendor to the rather moribund Old Town, which appears to be enlivened only by crowds of tourists and is dominated by pseudo-painters and pseudo-sculptors. The foundation proves that art has always regarded independence to be the supreme value.
Similarly to the 1960s, the works presented by artists exhibiting in the Barbican are distant from the canon recognized by professionals (art critics and artists themselves). Just as in the past, the artists associated with Artbarbakan delve into somewhat inconvenient themes, although the form has remained the same: landscapes, nudes, abstraction or vedutes. Years ago, they depicted somber Polish reality - workers hurrying to factories and grim Warsaw suburbs. Many canvases also contained sacral elements, at the time highly unpopular. Today, independent compositions are executed alongside, or even contrary to the official current. Artbarbakan does not present controversial or startling works nor shocks the spectator with vulgar nudity, violence and intentionally bizarre, frequently caricature-like forms, attained with the use of contemporary means, often incomprehensible to the average spectator.
Artbarbakan signifies primarily contemporary classical art proposed in "unpopular' forms recognized by the critics as banal. Today, the en vogue artist does not paint nudes, landscapes or still-lifes, but tends to undress himself; even abstraction is no longer appreciated. It is precisely this type of "unfashionable" works which we shall encounter in the Warsaw Old Town. Fortunately, alongside the two currents dominating in Polish art: the avant-garde and kitsch, there has appeared a third proposal addressed to art lovers - classical art featured in modern frames.
The fact that the art propagated by Artbarbakan enjoys recognition is evidenced predominantly by the evolution of the originally unassuming program, featured in several galleries and on the walls of the Barbican, into a cyclical event, which yearly increases its range, i. a. by involving galleries in the City and public exhibition sites. Artbarbakan invites artists from the whole of Mazovia and abroad, i. a. Slovakia, Italy, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Germany and England.
The first editions of Artbabakan were extremely modest, similarly to the beginnings of the celebrated Documenta in Kassel, initiated by independent German artists. Quite possibly, in a few years the summer exhibitions displayed on the walls of the Barbican and in the Old Town an the City will be attended by artists from all over Europe and even the world - just as in Kassel.
Ludmiła Grudniak - art critic
BARBAKAN
1962 - 1967
(Archive
photos)
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