Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Polish constructivist painter Władysław Strzemiński (1893–1952) laid out the principles of theory of Unism in his book Unism in Painting, in which in the conclusion he stated: “Dualist conception should be replaced by unist conception.” Thus, Strzemiński shattered the dichotomy between content and form by clinging to the idea of the painting as an essential flat surface, with its reference to the white wall, on which the painting is hung, defined as an optical unity that is shut off from its surroundings by the painting’s frame. Moreover, unistic painting as an experimental order could reach further stages of contemporary social evolution and form the blueprint for the construction of a better world, contributing to the utopian nature of Strzemiński’s work. The unistic arrangement and coherence of the picture was intended to serve as a model for homogeneous society, which during the interwar period was still pluralistic. In relation to this notion, Volker Adolphs states in his essay ‘Silent Painting’ that Strzemiński agreed with Piet Mondrian that art had the capacity to create forms that infuse order into life and serenity. Therefore, the paper aims to elaborate the aspect of the social context of Strzemiński’s period of unist work created between 1924-32, with the background of ‘Polishness’ in modern art reception, concluding on its spatial embodiment of the International Collection of Modern Art in Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, confronted throughout with the universal values of Strzemiński’s theory of Unism within the avant-garde utopia and the problems lively discussed in revolutionary Russia.