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The Warsaw Group Rytm (1922-32) and Modernist Classicism

The Warsaw Group Rytm (1922-32) and Modernist Classicism

Małgorzata Sears

Ebook

The first monograph of the influential Polish group Rytm to be published in English, this book is a nuanced reconstruction of this forgotten interwar association of artists, and an original contribution to the ongoing debates on the new classicism in Europe. Engaging critically with both recent scholarly works, and early twentieth-century writing, on modernism, classicism, Maurice Denis, and Henri Bergson, it offers a reassessment of the critique of the concepts of decorativeness, style, and rhythm, and poses important questions about the broader historiography of the 1920s in Europe as a whole.

 

“The book provides a valuable and unique study of the group […]. [It] expands the modernist canon by reinstating Rytm, but it also makes a significant contribution to the ongoing debates concerning ‘modernist classicism’ in European art.” 

Christina Lodder, Honorary Professor of Art History, University of Kent and Honorary Fellow, University of York

 

“Until recently, scholars have tended to downplay more aesthetically ‘traditional’ developments in Eastern European art, focusing almost exclusively on the avant-gardes. Sears’ excellent book is symptomatic of a shift away from such approaches today. She is a leading figure in a revisionist generation who emphasise continuity and hybridity over utopia and rupture.” 

Klara Kemp-Welch, Reader in 20th Century Modernism, The Courtauld Institute of Art

 

Małgorzata Sears is an art historian and artist educated in Poland and the United Kingdom and based in London. She studied fine art in Cornwall (Falmouth) and art history in London (Courtauld Institute of Art), where she was awarded her doctorate and was a Visiting Lecturer. She specialises in Polish interwar art and has a wider interest in European modernism, especially its links to notions of Classicism.

Preface                                                                                               

Abbreviations                                                                                     

Introduction                                                                                     

Chapter One: Rytm’s Exhibitions: The ‘Exhibitions Narrative’ Revisited         

First Exhibition (1922): Setting up the Key Lines                                 

The First Exhibition: the Foundation? • Novelty and Positive Anticipation • Discussing Stylistic Profile: Compositional Unity • Classicism between Historicism and Formalism • Domesticating the Myth • Rhythmism • Rytm and Pani (1922–1925): Art and Consumption • A New Political Voice • International and ‘Representative’ Ambitions

Second Exhibition (1923): a Disappointment in Kraków                       

Rytm: a Warsaw Group from Kraków • Rytm between Formism and Sztuka

Third Exhibition (1923): an Alliance with WTAP and Południe               

A Pact against Zachęta • A Pact against Impressionism                       

Fourth Exhibition (1924): Crystallisation of Aesthetic and Political Positions    

Formalist Classicism against Impressionism • Turbulent Outcome: Break with Zachęta • The Alliance with the Liberal Literary World: Wiadomości Literackie and Skamander

Fifth Exhibition (1925): Terza Biennale Romana. Rytm Abroad          

Organisational Controversy • The 1925 Paris Exhibition

Sixth Exhibition (1926): Farewell to Zak, Rytm’s Founder and its Member from Paris

Seventh to Ninth Exhibitions (1926–1929): Interim                             

Loss of Stylistic Unity • Back to Painterliness • New State Patronage and the General National Exhibition (PWK) of 1929                                                       

Tenth and Eleventh Exhibitions (1930–1932): Back to the Salon

Chapter Two: Rytm and Politics at Home and Abroad                        

Rytm and the ‘Regime’                                                                        

‘National’ Art without Pathos. Rytm and Poland’s New

‘National Style’ • Rytm and Sanacja • From Rytm to ‘State-forming Artists’ • The ‘Propaganda’ Argument. Poland’s New Foreign Exhibitions Policy as the Game Changer for Rytm

Rytm and the Dream of Modern Art Patronage                                    

Rytm and Institutions. The Impact of Skoczylas and Pruszkowski • Rytm and the Community Spirit • State Education and Democracy • ‘Widening participation’. Between State Support and Market Currents

Chapter Three: Interwar Classicisms and the Modernist Idiom          

The Subject of Classicismand the Problem with Traditionalism • Historical Pastiche of Roman Kramsztyk and Tadeusz Pruszkowski • Traditionalism via St Petersburg. Ludomir Sleńdziński

The ‘New Classicism’ between Innovation and Reaction                       

‘New Classicism’: the Regress or the Progress of the Parisian Avant-garde? • Political Classicism and Interwar Classicism’s Post-War Framing

Tracing a Reaction Further Back: Modernist Classicism against Impressionism

‘Rhythm – Composition – Classicality’: the Programme of Rytm • The ‘Formal’ Classicism. Classicism as a Category of Form • The ‘Symbolic Classicism’. Museion and the Influence of French Literary Symbolism • Focus on Maurice Denis

Chapter Four: Rytm and the Classicism of Maurice Denis: Structure and Synthesis

Classicism as Formalism of Subordination. The Method of Synthesis • Anti-Academic Classicism of Denis and its Modern Lineage • Rytm and Denis. Identifying the Links • Antoine Bourdelle’s ‘Return to Form’ • Standing with Denis. Rytm and the Persistence of Symbolic Formalism

Chapter Five: ‘Rhythmism’. Rytm and Bergsonism

Between Classicism and Primitivism. Bergsonian Myth inRytm’s Images of Idyll and Dance

The Bergsonian Myth of a Primal Unity. ‘Rhythm’ as la Durée • The Case of Bolesław Leśmian’s Poetry • Rytm’s Idylls • Images of Dance • The Dynamic Dionysian Classicism: Youth and Joyfulness

Between Classicism and Expressionism. ‘Rhythm’ and Bergsonism in Early Formalism

Bergsonism and the Synthetist Symbolic System. Images of Rhythmic Harmony • The Rhythmist Method(s). Between Classicism and Abstract Formal Expression

Bergson Against Manifesto                                                                  

‘Rhythm’: the ‘Non-Descriptive Label’ and a Marker of Modernity • Against Manifesto, or Bergsonian Anti-Programme

Chapter Six: ‘Moderate’ Modernism or Modernist ‘Totality’? Rytm’s Search for Style  

The ‘Style of Rytm’ • The Case ofEugeniusz Zak’s Applied Decoration • Between the Modernist Decorative and Art Deco. Two Legacies of the 1925 Paris Exhibition • Rytm, Monumentality, and the ‘Style of the Epoch’ • Rytm and the Avant-garde in Poland: Two Modernisms                                                                                        

Conclusion                                                                                        

Bibliography                                                                                       

List of Illustrations                                                                              

Index of Names                                                                                  

Index of Topics                                                                                   

Appendices                                     

  • Title: The Warsaw Group Rytm (1922-32) and Modernist Classicism
  • Author: Małgorzata Sears
  • ISBN: 978-83-242-6660-9, 9788324266609
  • Date of issue: 2022-12-29
  • Format: Ebook
  • Item ID: e_30xs
  • Publisher: Wydawnictwo UNIVERSITAS