Ślad

Polscy artyści i polskie wystawy w Bagdadzie w 1943 roku

Abstract

JAN WIKTOR SIENKIEWICZ (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun) / A trace. Polish artists and Polish exhibitions in 1943 Baghdad
The article sketches a panorama of the exhibition initiatives and presentations of the artwork of Polish artists-soldiers in Baghdad in 1943, which were organized by Jozef Jarema and Jozef Czapski within the framework of the Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade stationing in Egypt. The text also presents the achievements of the authors who, with General Wladysław Anders, escaped from Soviet captivity to Iran in 1942 – as soldiers of the Polish Army in the East (later the 2nd Corps). In particular, the exhibition initiatives and social activism of Jozef Jarema, reconstructed on the basis of archival sources (which the author of this text reached during his research in Rome in 2010–2012) and press publications in the years 1940–1950 (especially in the Arabic, English, French and Polish press – published in the Near and Middle East, and particularly in Egypt), show the creator of Krakow’s pre-war “Cricot 1” theater not only as an active painter, but above all as a leading community worker and an activist in the area of promoting Polish culture, who recognized the need to present Polish art even in the most culturally alien environments and difficult conditions of venues in the Near and Middle East and Africa.