The Library of the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Mirroring “Official” and “Unofficial” Distribution of Knowledge, 1949-1970

The library of the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences and its various archives serve as a unique reflection of the role of political ideology in art history in the Polish People’s Republic during the 1950s and 1960s. From its foundation in 1949, the Institute of Art was used by the Communist government to exercise ideological control over Poland’s artistic and academic communities. The Institute had been granted centralizing and normative roles for this purpose, not just for the visual arts, but also for theater, music, folk art and film. Until the late 1960s, the Institute enjoyed a hegemonic position that allowed it to dominate intellectual exchange in the arts between Polish and Soviet as well as Western scholars. The Institute’s wide collection of books, journals and exhibition catalogues provides information concerning the circulation of art theories at that time. The library contains all publications on art and its history from Poland and other Communist countries. Additionally, through extensive private contacts, the Institute collected the latest texts on those artistic phenomena and theories that authorities perceived as “unofficial.” Analysis of the collection contributes to a reconstruction of the transfer of ideologies and distribution of knowledge. This investigation unveils the complicated relationship of Polish art historians to Marxist-based philosophy and contemporary artistic currents. The library helps to reconstruct unique Polish characteristics which indicate that in the 1950s and 1960s, art theory tended to be validated via philosophies of the Western left, especially those emanating from Paris and Rome.