The bilingual album of art selected by Paweł Leszkowicz ART PRIDE. Gay Art from Poland will be on sale as of mid-June. It can now be pre-ordered on our website www.abiekt.pl. For more information please visit our blog www.art-pride.blogspot.com.
The publication coincides with the opening of a related exhibition, Ars Homo Erotica at the
National Museum in Warsaw curated by Paweł Leszkowicz. Unlike the exhibition of homoerotic art, the album presents gay art which both portrays desire for the male body and has a political impact, undermining the homophobic and heterocentric reality through art. With its local and political references, ART PRIDE is a valuable complement to the museum exhibition.The album uncovers what has been concealed in Polish art: the very fact that gay art has been made in Poland for decades, not only after the transition, but also in the previous political system.
ART PRIDE presents gay art made in Poland since the 1960s, starting with largely forgotten artists: Krzysztof Jung and Krzysztof Niemczyk. The most contemporary artists featured in the album include well-known names: Mitoraj, Radziszewski, Stasys. And yet gay art from Poland is made both by popular, recognised artists and by many others, less familiar to the general public. The album presents 36 artists and contains around 150 illustrations.
The many full-colour illustrations are accompanied by Paweł Leszkowicz’s introductory essay, which discussed the history and research methodology of gay art and introduces the artists who have made gay art in Poland. Leszkowicz rediscovers works by well-known and unknown artists and reveals their gay, emancipatory and affirmative potential. In the author’s own words:
As the title ART PRIDE has it, this album takes the affirmative emancipatory perspective: toogay is good. Gay aesthetics is one of many equally important styles and narrations of
Postmodern culture and democratic society. More than that, depending on the social and
political context, it often unlocks the avant-garde revolutionary potential of art. In the Polish
context, where homophobia is part of official politics and society is strongly heteronormative,
www.abiekt.pl / www.art-pride.blogspot.com
gay culture has a subversive potential. This is why it is important to write about the aesthetics
and politics of gay art in Poland. The book is available in two differently priced versions: as a paperback and a hardcover (cloth in a dust jacket). We want Polish art to reach beyond borders so the text in the album is published in Polish and in English.
As usual with our publications, we hope that word and image can change the reality. ART PRIDE. Gay Art from Poland is an ambitious and innovative project aiming to present art which is not always appreciated by critics, and even then often castrated by interpretations which exclude the gay perspective on art.
Join us at the book promotion on 17 June, 8pm, Mała Scena, TR Warszawa (8, Marszałkowska St.). The special guests include the author Paweł Leszkowicz, the editor, and artists featured in the album.
The event will be hosted by Mike Urbaniak.