Białostocki, Jan, artist and Moisi Pierre.

[PICASSO IN POLAND AFTER WWII] Współcześni malarze francuscy oraz Ceramika Pabla Picasso ofiarowana przez autora Muzeum Narodowemu w Warszawie [Contemporary French Painters, and Ceramics by Pablo Picasso donated by the artist to the National Museum Warsaw].

Warsaw: Muzeum Narodowe, 1948. Octavo (21.5 × 15 cm). Original pictorial wrappers; 11, [5] pp. Eight plates of illustrations. Very good. Item #54604

An illustrated catalog for an exhibition of French contemporary art held at the National Art Museum in Warsaw in November–December 1948, showcasing painting, tapestries, and ceramics (58 works in all) of 28 contemporary artists living in France including works by Marc Chagall, Fernand Leger, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, with 20 ceramics pieces (plates) donated by Picasso to the National Museum after the exhibition. The exhibition was held on the occasion of Picasso’s visit to Poland in August 1948, to attend the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace convened by the Soviet Union and held in Wrocław. Picasso also visited Kraków and Warsaw on this occasion, where he famously painted a mermaid (symbol of Warsaw) on the wall of one of the newly-constructed housing estates. Seen as an act of support for the city destroyed in WWII and undergoing massive reconstruction, the incident is referred to in the dedication of this catalog. The introduction to the catalog by the director of the French Institute in Poland, Pierre Moisy, makes an argument for nonfigurative and abstract work of art in the exhibition, a case that would be progressively harder to make with the imposition of Socialist Realism on Polish art and art institutions after WWII. By comparison, Picasso’s first exhibition in the Soviet Union would not take place until 1957, after the death of Stalin, in 1953. Wrappers for this publication designed by the Polish art historian Jan Białostocki, who was also a woodcut artist, having learned the craft during the war.

As of March 2025, KVK, OCLC show only one copy outside of Poland, in North America.

Price: €500.00

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