THE IMPERMANENT: WORKS FROM THE MSN COLLECTION

The works presented in the exhibition all come from the same historical period, from the 1950s to the present. Among the works from the museum’s own collection, visitors will also find significant works from the collections of other institutions and private collections. 

The exhibition of the MSN Warsaw collection is a testament to the changes that have occurred in the visual arts over recent decades, in Poland and around the world. It addresses the notion of the “canon,” which is subject to continual change and renegotiation, on the part of experts as well as audiences seeking in artworks a reflection of their own experiences, desires and emotions.

The two parts of the exhibition offer distinct interpretations of the collection. They involve the same historical period, between the 1950s and the present, but using different frames of reference: engagement and desire.

The first part, titled Banner: Engagement, Realism, and Political Art, brings together works connected with political involvement and a faith in the active, changemaking role of art. In this part of the show, the human figure triumphs, along with journalistic messaging and a belief in art as a universal language that can speak to everyone without resorting to jargon. It opens with Alina Szapocznikow’s sculpture Friendship from 1954.

The second part, Synthetic Materialities: Body, Commodity and Fetish from the Cold War to the Present, comprises works embodying consumerist desires, driven by a fascination with pop culture, advertising, and mass media, created from the mid-century to now. The show evokes the dreams of the “poor fringes,” including Eastern Europe and the Global South, which have often been overlooked in the world history of art.

The two parts of the exhibition are interwoven. In the first part we witness engaged artists’ fascination with the esthetics and devices of pop culture (TV ads, fashion photography), and in the second part, ascribing esthetically seductive political content to seemingly “decorative” works of art.