In the dark and uncertain reality of Poland in the 1980s, during the period of martial law and national apathy, six painters from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts found their own language of artistic expression.
Ryszard Grzyb, Paweł Kowalewski, Jarosław Modzelewski, Włodzimierz Pawlak, Marek Sobczyk and Ryszard Woźniak, together as GRUPPA, became 1 of the most charismatic and expressive voices of their generation throughout Central and east Europe. Their art was a tearful honest and bold reaction to the planet around them – to the surrender of civilian courage and absurdity of everyday PRL. The exhibition at Spectra Art Space presents works created during this crucial period for artists, allowing them to realize the phenomenon of their legendary formation.
Personal Art
GRUPKY members deliberately rebelled against the dominant aesthetics of minimalism. In return, they offered to paint violently, emotionally, saturated with intense colour, but besides with irony and grotesque. Their paintings were visual manifestos, created in the spirit of “personal art” and at the same time profoundly immersed in the social experience of peers.
They expanded their activity by performing forms of expression, specified as readings of manifestos or improvised happenings. Thanks to common cultural codes – literary, musical or philosophical fascinations – their art was communicative and readable, becoming an identity experience for many Poles. As Jarosław Modzelewski recalled after years, GRUPPA was the place where their idols met – Gombrowicz, Malewicz or Wróblewski, and emotional “voices from the afterlife” powerfully marked their work.
"Art must work!"
The spiritual patron of the formation was Andrzej Wróblewski, and his slogan “Art must work!” became an imperative and valuable tool for the members of GRUPKY to respond to reality. The works presented at the exhibition illustrate this attitude perfectly.
Here we will find 1 of the most emblematic works by Marek Sobczyk, a monumental canvas “Where are they inactive fighting in Poland” from 1989, which symbolically exposes absurd force at the threshold of systemic transformation. In a peculiar way the “Mon Cheri Bolshevique” of Paweł Kowalewski from 1984, a work full of irony and caution, embedded in the tragic paradox of Polish-Russian relations.
Next to them we will see the energetic and sharp humour of the gouaches of Ryszard Grzyb and the monumental “Sen with Arms” by Jarosław Modzelewski, where the figure in the red suit with a weapon covering his face evokes the spirit of individualized figures from Wróblewski’s “Shots”.
In the “Building” of Ryszard Wozniak we will find a figure of man “top-down”, possibly a associate in the construction of a strategy which makes no sense. The complement is the existential manifesto of Włodzimierz Pawlak, “Wait a minute, in which man and dog feel the same pain of existence”, where contours of heads painted black, dripping paint mention to the brutal aesthetics of PRL-Polish censorship.
Map of fears and hopes of Poles
The exhibition at Spectra Art Space is not only a presentation of works of unquestionable standing in Polish art history. This is besides the effect of Anna and Jerzy Starak's long-standing collection passion, who have been consistently building a typical image of the identity of a generation of GRUPKY artists for over 15 years. It is besides a re-meeting of artists with curator Ania Muszyńska, with whom they collaborated already in 2002 at the legendary exhibition at the Program Gallery.
GRUPPY's painting, which shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall captured an emotional map of Poles' fears and hopes, remains highly timely.
The exhibition will be available to the public until 12 October 2025 at the Foundation's office on 6 Bobrowecka Street. It is open regular and on Wednesdays during extended hours, with the admission free.
