Rocznik Historii Sztuki

The text presents the achievements of Wiesław Juszczak, who died in 2021, as a challenge that has not yet been taken up by the humanities. The reason for this may be the multiformity and thematic richness of his texts, almost always essayistic in nature (in the best, traditional sense), with an outstanding literary dimension, but at the same time a deep and broad scientific background. This applies to both his books on Polish painting around 1900, works on post-impressionists, as well as analyzes of archaic Greek thought about art, religious roots of art from various cultures, unconventional interpretations of Japanese films or Ingmar Bergman’s oeuvre.

The purpose of the article is to ask the question of the meaning of art in Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophy, taking into account not only the well-known text Reality and Its Shadow, but also texts from the later period of his work. The first part of the article is an interpretation of Reality and Its Shadow in the context of contemporary phenomenological concepts. The second, on the other hand, will be an attempt to show the change in Levinas’ approach to the visual arts based on his statements about Jean-Michel Atlan’s paintings and Sascha Sosno’s sculptures. The third, concluding section, will in turn attempt to describe works of contemporary art that would perhaps elude Levinas’ strict evaluation of art, highlighting the tension between the dimension of ontology and ethics, without falling into banal moralizing and allowing harm to be revealed without, however, leading the viewer to ethical paralysis.

The paper presents the mainstream methodological reflection in the field of art history, shaped by the reception of Karl Popper’s philosophy of critical rationalism from the 1940s to the 1980s. A key role in this process was played by various attempts to respond to the deductive-nomological model of scientific explanation. Referring to Popper’s ideas, Gombrich developed the project of deductive iconology, associated with the conventionalist approach to the principles of image representation and communication. In dialogue with Gombrich’s views, alternative and mutually contradictory versions of the adaptation of the DN model for the methodological explanation of images were put forward by Oskar Bätschmann and Michael Baxandall. Michael Fried and Norman Bryson proposed opposing versions of viewing the image as a form of response to the objective and fundamentally fixed initial conditions of contact with the viewer. The divergence and incommensurability of the methods of art history facing Popper’s methodology revealed the inherent paradox of the notion of fact, on the one hand treated realistically and opposed to theories, and on the other depending on the interpretive perspective and theoretical assumptions.

This paper is a contribution to research on the reflection on art in literary criticism and cultural journalism of the interwar period. It discusses the interest in graphic arts of the Silesian born right-wing reviewer and literary critic, Alfred Jesionowski (1902–1945?), which resulted in his popularizing discussions on the works of such artistic personalities of the interwar period as Paweł Steller (wood engraver and watercolourist), Stanisław Brzęczkowski (wood engraver) and Jan Kuglin (typographer).

The paper offers a reappraisal of the Puławy collection’s display through a detailed analysis of Virgilian evocations within the complex. The choice of inscriptions and ancient imagery framing the exposition’s narrative, as well as the surviving reception testimonies towards such strategies within Pulavian pavilions, demonstrate an ongoing questioning of chronological sequences, the primacy of authenticity, and aestheticising exhibits. Such anachronic distancing from a historicizing temporality would take place in favour of an intimate experience of familial-cum-national memorabilia, in accordance with the contemporaneously emerging category of the fetish.

The article discusses the architecture of the parish church in Czarnca (1640 – around 1655), which up till now has not been discussed in detail by researchers. The innovative construction solutions used in the church are part of a wider European environment, in which architects were looking for ways to make better use of natural sunlight for interior lightning in buildings.

Linda Nochlin’s book Realism was published in the United States in 1971. The reasons for its prompt publication in Poland are not known, as in 1974 it did not generate much interest. However, at that time methodological problems similar to those presented by Nochlin began to be addressed in Polish art history. The effects of these activities became apparent only in the 1990s, when feminist art also began to be discussed in Poland.

This text is a presentation of the project of a revisionist history of feminist art in Poland. In its first part, I draw attention to the fact that the conceptual frameworks that shape the narratives of the relationship between art and feminism, both global and local, have proved to be extremely durable. In the next two sections of the article, I present a revisionist history of feminist art in practice with brief analyses of three works: Banner-Corset and Cover for My Lover by Maria Pinińska-Bereś (both 1967) and Consumer Art by Natalia LL (1972–1975).

The article is devoted to the reception of Katarzyna Kobro – changes in historiographic approaches to the artist and her biography, as well as references to her in contemporary art projects and curatorial practices. The context of these considerations is the discussion initiated by Linda Nochlin on the issue of mythologizing individual creativity and the question of how feminist thinking helps to modify the older understanding of “artistic greatness”.

The aim of this text is to reflect upon Polish research on the art of women. The analysis focus on syntheses, published in book form, devoted to a group of female artists working at a specific time and place. This analysis shows the shape of research on women’s art in Poland, the consequences of it and the perspectives for the future.

Fifty years after Linda Nochlin wrote her essay Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? female artists are still struggling with limitations, a weak position in the field of art and their own dependence on others. In the text I discuss selected works of artists from Central Europe, which indicate the gender and geographical dependencies prevailing in the Western art world. Such artists as Tanja Ostojić, Anetta Mona Chisa and Lucia Tkáčova, Agata Zbylut and Aneta Grzeszykowska use diversion and mimicry strategies in their art, and the artists themselves can be described as tricksters.