The 1st Exhibition of Polish Women Artists in Bydgoszcz

On the strategies of visibility on the cultural map of the reborn Second Polish Republic

Abstract

KAROLINA ROSIEJKA (University of Arts in Poznan) / The 1st Exhibition of Polish Women Artists in Bydgoszcz. On the strategies of visibility on the cultural map of the reborn Second Polish Republic

The text presents the background to the 1st Exhibition of Polish Women Artists, which took place in 1930 in the Bydgoszcz City Museum. The exhibition presenting only works by women is linked in the article to the social discourse of the Second Republic. It sought to build a progressive reborn Polish society based on the ideal of equality, including gender equality. The text proves that the 1st Exhibition of Polish Women Artists was aimed at raising the profile of the institution organising the event on the cultural map of Poland, and further, of the city itself, where the exhibition was held. The circumstances of the organisation of the exhibition and its resonance presented here make it possible to show the status of women’s art in the inter-war period, which evolved from a peripheral artistic reality into a phenomenon increasingly at the centre of art world manifestations.