Author Description

World War I, referred to as "the Great War" during the interwar period, was the first pan-European military conflict whose impact was felt well beyond the continent. It was a momentous event in world history, marking the end of the belle époque, and leaving political, social, and cultural changes that can still be felt around the world a century later. The war revealed the uncompromising and radical side of modernity. The same modernity that, while giving hope for rejuvenation and change, and rejecting the old world order, demanded sacrifices. World War I marked the boundary between 19th-century Romanticism, the epoch of innocence, and the disillusioned, alienated world of the 20th century. For many, it meant not only the break with the old epoch, but also a preview of the potential consequences of modernity. By stating this, it validated the ongoing cultural transformations and the direction of the explorations of the prewar Avant-garde. This exhibition and the accompanying book are intended to demonstrate the presence of the memory of World War I in modern art. This memory assumed different forms. For many artists in different countries the war played a pivotal role, both due to its totality and to the speeding up of the machinery of modernity not only in respect to politics, but also technology, culture, and society. World War I revolutionised everything, most radically renouncing all history up to that time. This publication is the first comprehensive study in Poland of the relationship between modern art and the experience of the Great War. In a series of essays discussing artists' portrayals of the war and their varying attitudes towards it, the book places the subject in a broader context.