Author Description

The exhibition "A Difficult Age. Szapocznikow - Wajda - Wróblewski" presents the work of Poland's most prominent and widely acclaimed post-war artists: film director Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016), conceptual sculptor Alina Szapocznikow (1926-1973), and painter Andrzej Wróblewski (1927-1957). The exhibit's main theme is an exploration of the adolescent experiences endured by these three artists - all born in the same period and all having lost a parent early in life - and the impact of these events on their work. The unprecedented scale of brutality committed during the Second World War left a profound mark on the lives of all three artists. The curator of the exhibition, the legendary Polish art historian and curator Anda Rottenberg, reveals how the same symbols and metaphors repeat themselves in different areas of art: painting, cinema, and sculpture. The exhibition "A Difficult Age: Vilnius, 1939-1949" is dedicated to Vilnius and its people. Over the brief, ten-year period between 1939 and 1949, political control over Vilnius changed hands six times. Wave after wave of campaigns to Lithuanianize, Germanize, and Russify and Sovietize the city undermined urban life and altered both the daily routines and identity of Vilnius' population. The city's Jews were murdered and its Poles expelled, replaced by Lithuanians, Belarusians, and Russians. The city's physical body changed as well, evidenced in altered urban planning and architecture. All of these transformations are revealed in this exhibition through a collection of artefacts: works of art, photography, documents, and architectural plans.