The Pope of the Avant-Garde. Tadeusz Peiper in Spain, Poland, Europe
28 May – 30 August 2015
The exhibition presents the relationship between avant-garde art and literature of the early 20th century, taking as a point of departure the oeuvre of Tadeusz Peiper – eminent poet, critic and theoretician of art. The display, prepared in cooperation with the cultural circles of Spain, where Peiper used to work, is going to emphasize the artistic and cultural ties between both countries.
In Poland, Tadeusz Peiper is famous for being the most prominent personality of Central European avant-garde and the founder of Zwrotnica (The Switch, 1922). Not many are aware of his ties with the Spanish and Spanish-speaking avant-garde circles. Between 1915 and 1920, Peiper lived in Madrid, surrounded by artists strongly associated with the Ultraist movement. At that time, the capital of Spain was the home of Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Guillermo de Torre, Vicente Huidobro, siblings Jorge Luis and Norah Borges, Rafael Barradas, and Polish artists: Józef Pankiewicz, Jan Wacław Zawadowski, Władysław Jahl and Marian Paszkiewicz (the latter two associated with the Ultraists). Peiper – who debuted as an author of literary sketches and journalist of the leading magazines (El Sol, La Lectura, España and La Publicidad) – also maintained contacts with Manuel Azaña and José Ortega y Gasset.
The curators of the exhibition will lead the viewer through 1914 Paris, the cosmopolitan circles of artists and writers in 1915–1921 Madrid and the Formist and Futurist Krakow, through avant-garde artistic and civilizational utopias of the 1920s to their demise and the gradual rise of catastrophism preceding the outbreak of World War II. We are also going to present the vigorous development of mass communication and culture that accompanied these processes.
We want to illustrate Peiper’s artistic alliances and the effects of his cooperation with outstanding avant-garde artists. Zwrotnica published works by Władysław Strzemiński and Kazimir Malevich; in turn, Peiper’s books and poems were illustrated by Juan Gris, Moïse Kisling, Fernand Léger, and others. We are going to present paintings, prints and sculptures by masters of the European avant-garde: apart from the above-mentioned Malevich, Gris, Léger, Strzemiński, we will show works by Vytautas Kairiūkštis, Francisco Bores, Albert Gleizes, Louis Marcoussis, Leon Chwistek, Tytus Czyżewski, Tymon Niesiołowski, Leon Dołżycki, Henryk Stażewski, Katarzyna Kobro, Marek Włodarski and Mieczysław Berman. They will be accompanied by a presentation of avant-garde publications and films.
Curators of the exhibition: Dr Piotr Rypson in cooperation with Monika Poliwka and Juan Manuel Bonet.
This fall the exhibition will be presented at Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid (18 September – 6 November 2015).
