Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu

The exhibition entitled Object – Space has been organised to celebrate the university’s centenary.

One of the main goals of the exhibition Object – Space is to remember artists and teachers who were associated with the University of the Arts Poznań for several dozen years, and were reformers in the areas of artistic medium and didactics understood in traditional terms. Having very different artistic experiences and often originating from different environments, they dealt with the problem of space, expanding the boundaries of concepts and disciplines of art.

The historic edifice of the former Wielkopolska Museum contains the oldest works – sculptural objects from the late 1950s by Piotr Potworowski and Józef Kaliszan – as well as sculptures by Julian Boss-Gosławski, who was one of the first to experiment with wood and metal in the Poznań environment. Contact with other artistic circles was particularly important for Jan Berdyszak, who proposed the establishment of the Permanent Study of Activities in Space in the mid-1970s, open to graduates of various universities. For years, important studios were run at the Poznań Academy of Fine Arts by commuting professors, such as Antoni Mikołajczyk and Jerzy Kałucki. Kałucki’s student Leszek Knaflewski was the creator of the Audiosphere Studio functioning today at the Faculty of Multimedia Communication. The professors’ works are displayed in the new wing of the museum. Over thirty spatial objects, sculptures and installations are accompanied by an extensive archive devoted to the most important teachers and studios functioning at the former PWSSP in Poznań and the authors of the first spatial objects situated between traditional painting and sculpture.

In May 1970, on the 50th anniversary of the then State Higher School of Fine Arts (Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Sztuk Plastycznych – PWSSP), an exhibition presenting the achievements of schoolteachers was opened in the National Museum in Poznań. This event initiated the custom of organising jubilee exhibitions of works by PWSSP professors in the National Museum (1946–1996). PWSSP was renamed as the Academy of Fine Arts (1996–2010) and then the University of the Arts Poznań. The exhibition that was prepared fifty years ago by a unique team of curators and artists has been the starting point for the exhibition entitled Object – Space, organised to celebrate the university’s centenary. For many reasons, the exhibition is historical. It recalls well-known and forgotten educators of the former PWSSP, artists educated at the university, as well as artists associated with other artistic centres who commuted to Poznań from Warsaw, Lublin, Łódź and Kraków. In this sense, the reference to the exhibition held fifty years ago is symbolic. It was then that the process of dynamic development of the university and the custom of inviting professors from outside Poznań to conduct classes began, creating a unique atmosphere of artistic ferment.

ARTISTS

Magdalena Abakanowicz, Jan Berdyszak, Julian Boss-Gosławski, Izabella Gustowska, Józef Kaliszan, Jerzy Kałucki, Leszek Knaflewski, Jarosław Kozłowski, Zdzisław Łosiński, Andrzej Matuszewski, Antoni Mikołajczyk, Piotr Potworowski, Joanna Przybyła, Andrzej Pukacki, Maciej Szańkowski, Wacław Twarowski, Magdalena Więcek, Antoni Zydroń

The exhibition’s works come from the collections of the National Museum in Poznań, the Wrocław Contemporary Museum, the Center of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow MOCAK and private collections.

The exhibition was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Creative Promotion Fund.

* The combined ticket entitles you to visit permanent and temporary exhibitions.