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For a week now, there have been two exhibitions at Zachęta in Warsaw – by Jerzy Nowosielski and “Landscape of Polish Painting”. However, the second one is quite controversial, and the artists who prepared works for the first one did not agree to have their works displayed next to the second one. They inform that they were not informed by the gallery director and curator Janusz Janowski about which works their paintings would be hung next to.
“Please accept that we do not consent to the exhibition of our works as part of the project in the institution managed by you” – this is only a fragment of the letter signed by 10 artists who do not want their works to be displayed in surroundings of the “Landscape of Polish Painting” exhibition. Among them are, among others, Wilhelm Sasnal, Agata Bogacka, Leon Tarasewicz and Marek Sobczyk. The addressee of the petition is Janusz Janowski, director of Zachęta and curator appointed by Piotr Gliński, Minister of Culture in the outgoing PiS government.
Mr. Janowski deliberately and calculatedly used our names and our works to validate his disgusting homophobic, sexist and any other views that are in blatant contradiction to our views.
– One of the artists, Agata Bogacka, explained in a letter.
Appointment without competition. Political motivations
Let us remind you that Janusz Janowski was appointed to this position at the beginning of 2022 despite the protests of people of culture and art. What’s more, without any competition, which has the hallmarks of a purely political appointment. The director replies to the artists that their works are the property of Zachęta. “Every work presented here was purchased years ago with public money and with all rights,” he explains.
Artists protest. “Now Zachęta is really “busy”
On Thursday, November 23, a protest took place in a Warsaw gallery with the participation of the artists who signed the letter. They wore T-shirts with the meaningful “Busy” graphic. Additionally, they put their names on the list presenting the exhibition. They put the words under their works: “The painting is presented without the consent of the artist.”
I think that now Zachęta is really “busy” – filled to the brim with mediocre art, including several paintings by outstanding artists whom I appreciate, placed without their consent in an absurd context amid xenophobia, homophobia, racism, bigotry. Sasnal’s painting is suffocating in guarding the Smolensk stairs and some nasty landscape, it looks like they took him prisoner, it only gets worse.
– Bartek Kiełbowicz, the initiator of the protest and creator of the graphics on T-shirts, said in an interview with the website redakcja.pl.
Source: wyborcza.pl
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
