Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw
August 2019
August 30–November 17, 2019
The exhibition Never Again. Art against War and Fascism in the 20th and 21st centuries, organized on the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II relies on three precisely determined focal points—Guernica and the 1930s, the “Arsenal” exhibition and the 1950s, contemporary art and (post-)fascism—to present the singular and distinctive tradition of anti-fascist art. Although the exhibition features primarily historic materials and iconic artworks that shaped the form of anti-fascist and anti-war resistance, the questions posed by the show concern the contemporary era.
Never Again. Art against War and Fascism in the 20th and 21st centuries identifies iconic images and key aspects of the anti-fascist tradition throughout the above moments in history. We use images as a prism through which to portray the complexity of the anti-fascist stance and the variety of approaches to the problem: from political satire and testimonies of atrocities to apocalyptic forecasts and visual propaganda, to more ambiguous abstract articulations of pro-democratic and anti-authoritarian content. Artists such as Wilhelm Sasnal and Raymond Pettibon depict systemic violence through the prism of subcultural aesthetics—both artists frequently illustrate album covers by punk rock bands as well as create posters and leaflets with anti-fascist content. Sasnal’s paintings feature references to World War II and the Cold War era with consciously used quotations from the then language of propaganda and art. Struggle with fascism is never won once and for all, the artists emphasize that this threat compels constant vigilance and mobilizing the persuasive potential of art.
The exhibition presents works by such artists from the 1930s: Maja Berezowska, Alice Neel, Dora Maar, George Grosz, John Heartfield, Jonasz Stern, Leopold Lewicki, Sasza Blonder, Adam Marczyński, Bolesław Stawiński, Bronisław Wojciech Linke, Stanisław Osostowicz; fromthe 1950s: Izaak Celnikier, Alina Szapocznikow, Jerzy Tchórzewski, Erna Rosenstein, Marek Oberländer, Jan Dziędziora, Jerzy Tchórzewski, Tadeusz Trepkowski, Waldemar Cwenarski, Wojciech Fangor, Andrzej Wróblewski, Xavier Guerrero; and today: Alice Creischer, Nikita Kadan, Forensic Architecture, Jonathan Horowitz, Goshka Macuga, Mario Lombardo, Mykola Ridnyi, Hito Steyerl, Martha Rosler, Raymond Pettibon, Wilhelm Sasnal, The Society of Friends of Maxwell Itoya and Wolfgang Tillmans.