From Łódź to Paris – Kobro and Strzemiński at the Centre Pompidou16.10.2018

On 24 October, an exhibition devoted to avant-garde greats Katarzyna Kobro and Władysław Strzemiński will open at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. It’s the first such broad retrospective of these artists on the world museum stage.

Katarzyna Kobro and Władysław Strzemiński are not just leading Polish artists, but also the people behind the creation, in 1930, of the Museum of Art in Łódź. It was the second museum devoted to contemporary art in the world – after 1928’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

The artistic output of Władysław Strzemiński and Katarzyna Kobro was not limited to one field. They created paintings, drawings, graphic art, and sculptures. They also frequently used elements of industrial design and architecture, and were active art theorists.

Jarosław Suchan and Karolina Ziębińska-Lewandowska, curators of the Parisian exhibition, say that their starting point was the idea of a “real utopia” which became a leitmotiv in many of Strzemiński and Kobro’s works. It is also an excellent opportunity to present these top-tier Polish avant-garde figures to a broader audience.

The exhibition at the Centre Pompidou is organized in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Museum of Art exhibition project.