Deutsches Historisches Museum - Verf�hrung Freiheit. Kunst in Europa seit 1945 - Blog

A brief anecdote from Ms Flacke, about how she found the Fangor in Łódź, and why for some pictures, you just have to go back once again. 

‘In the cold January of 2009, co-curator Henry Myric Hughes and I travelled to Warsaw. From there we took side trips to Krakow, Poznań and also to Łódź, where we met with the museum directors to discuss our concept. In Łódź we visited the Sztuki Museum’s wonderful collection, with its post-1945 art, which I found pretty overwhelming.

I had walked past a work during our viewing and had thought, “This is a curious social realist picture with that American woman in it.” I went back to the painting, which was by Fangor. I’m standing in front of it, looking at it, and thinking, “There is something odd about it.” And I then thought, “This would go together well with the Léger”, because both pictures were from 1950. Fangor presents such a range of things: doubt, hope, and conviction, and references to what socialism will become and what communism is, after the terrible experiences prior to 1945. In this respect, I found it to be a wonderful picture regarding these questions about utopia, and I was certain that it should be in the exhibition.

And this museum also has the first picture by Opalka in which he begins with the numbers. I would have very much liked to have that painting for the exhibition, too, but it is not something that is so lightly loaned out. But it was the birth of the Opalka idea.’

The painting can be viewed here!