Surrealism, Socialist Realism, Dialogue?

Abstract

The text offers a critical and comprehensive review of Dorota Jarecka’s book Surrealizm, realizm, marksizm. Sztuka i lewica komunistyczna w Polsce w latach 1944–1948 [Surrealism, Realism, Marxism: Art and the Communist Left in Poland between 1944 and 1948]. The reviewer appreciates the main methodological premise of the book, namely that the tensions and conflicts generated within the triangle “avant-garde – realism – emancipatory role of art” cannot be reduced to a binary opposition between totalitarian ideology and the legitimate art world. In fact, it reflects the contradictory dynamics of politically engaged art in general and thecontext of post-war Poland in particular. Despite the book’s formidable factual support, the result of extensive and comprehensive query, the reviewer still regrets that the author remains primarily an art historian rather than social historian of art. This note of regret however does not diminish this noble contribution to understanding the logics of Polish visual arts in the aftermath of World War II. This area is much less known generally than the literature of this very period.