Witold Gombrowicz and the idea of 'Polish art'

Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz, who lived in Argentina for over twenty years, is known for his ambivalent attitude to his homeland — in particular the figure of the émigré writer tasked with preserving Polish culture abroad. He lamented his compatriots' simultaneous aspirations to 'Westerness' and inability to escape national myths and clichés. My presentation will analyse two exhibitions of Polish art that referenced Gombrowicz’s musings, each curated for different audiences and under different historical circumstances: Polish Realities: New Art from Poland (Glasgow, Scotland, 1988) and Late Polishness. Forms of national identity after 1989 (Warsaw, Poland, 2017). The shows demonstrate contrasting ways of thinking about Polishness in art: as an identity but also creative standpoint. While abroad the idea of 'Polish art' may appear self-explanatory, in Poland the question of a national art continues to be contested, in particular following the defeat of the Law & Justice party in 2023, after eight years of rule. The two case studies prompt a consideration of the transhistorical appeal of Gombrowicz’s anti-essentialist, apprehensive Polishness as a curatorial tool, encouraging us to ask: how might his writing reconfigure the way national identity is part of art-historical discourse in the present political moment?