1920s – the "a.r" collection Muzeum Sztuki was established as a result of reorganisation of Łódź museums in 1930. The core of its collection is based on works of modern art collected in Poland and abroad by the
a.r. group in the period 1929–1932 and supplemented until 1938. The initiator and the main driving force behind the action of collecting the donations from artists was a painter and art theoretician
Władysław Strzemiński, actively supported by
Katarzyna Kobro – a sculptor,
Henryk Stażewski – painter, as well as
Jan Brzękowski and
Julian Przyboś – poets. ,
Counter-composition XV, collection of the Museum of Art in ŁódźThe Collection in its ideological dimension reflects Strzemiński's artistic preferences, although its final shape was the product of the activities of many people, including Henryk Stażewski,
Hans Arp and Michel Seuphor. It presents an overview of avant-garde strands and tendencies of the late 1920s and includes masterpieces of Abstractionists, such as
Hans Arp and
SophieTaeuber-Arp,
Theo van Doesburg,
Jean Gorin, Jean Helion,
Vilmos Huszar, Henryk Stażewski or Georges Vantongerloo. The collection also includes artworks of artists representing Cubism (e.g.,
Fernand Léger, Louis Marcoussis),
Futurism (Enrico Prampolini),
Dada (
Kurt Schwitters),
Surrealism (
Max Ernst, Kurt Seligmann), Formism (e.g.,
Leon Chwistek,
Tytus Czyżewski), “pure form” (
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz) or Unism (Władysław Strzemiński). The collection was initiated by the artists and took shape as a result of their solidarity-based international initiative to donate works against any artistic divisions.
1930s , Board with Spiral Originally, the museum was housed on the first floor of the former town hall at
Liberty Square (Plac Wolności) 1 and its full name read “The J. and K. Bartoszewicz Municipal Museum of History and Art” (named after
Kazimierz Bartoszewicz, who donated his family collection of art to the city in the period 1928–1930). The first exhibition opened on 13 April 1930 and this date is considered to mark the beginnings of what is today Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź.
Avant-garde art from the collection of "a.r" group was made available to the public on 15 February 1931. In 1935 Dr. Marian Minich was appointed the director of the museum and already in the initial years he expanded the collection with works that have complemented the picture of Polish modern art with Polish Formists, the Lviv group of surrealists Artes, and representative works of
Jankel Adler and
Karol Hiller. Immediately after World War II, Muzeum Sztuki acquired paintings of
Alexej Jawlensky. Soon, the museum was transferred to one of the palaces of the Poznański family, in Więckowskiego 36, which since 1948 has been one of its locations. Marian Minich was re-nominated as a director. It was he who adapted rooms in the palace to the needs of the museum and invited Władysław Strzemiński to cooperate, which resulted in the “Neoplastic Room” being added to the exhibition space. The collection of contemporary art was expanded with, inter alia, works by
Jonasz Stern,
Jerzy Nowosielski, and
Alina Szapocznikow.
Ryszard Stanisławski and the Museum of Art in the 1950s ,
Św. Wojciech In 1950 the museum changed its name to
Muzeum Sztuki (Museum of Art) in Łódź. The second director of the museum became
Ryszard Stanisławski, who headed the institution in the years 1966–1991. His goal was to expand the international collection of modern and contemporary art. In his museum practice he accentuated the pivotal role of the “museum as a critical instrument” and preferred focusing the collection on phenomena that were perceived as open, creative and authentic. Stanisławski's efforts led to the acquisition of the first painting from
Roman Opałka series of “counted” paintings (others were to follow), the collection of early works of
Krzysztof Wodiczko,
Mirosław Bałka, and representatives of Warsztat Form Filmowej (Film Form Workshop). Muzeum also received a collection of works by Czech artists acquired at the end of the Prague Spring (e.g.
Jiří Kolář).
Mateusz Grabowski, owner of an avant-garde gallery in
London, donated artworks representing British Pop Art and Op Art (e.g. Derek Boshier,
Bridget Riley, and
Pauline Boty). American artists (e.g.
Sam Francis,
Lawrence Weiner, Barbara Kasten, and
Chris Burden) bestowed their works in exchange for artworks of Polish artists. The collection of works from the first
Construction in Process (Polish: Konstrukcja w Procesie) festival donated by “Solidarity” (e.g. Peter Downsbrough,
Dan Graham, and
Richard Nonas) enriched the representation of
minimal art. In a symbolic gesture of solidarity with Polish society,
Joseph Beuys donated ca. 300 artworks from his archives within the framework of “Polentransport 1981”. Insufficient exhibition space was a permanent problem of the Muzeum. In the early 1970s a tender was advertised for the construction of a new building for the museum but the project has never been successfully accomplished due to the economic crisis. In 1973 the museum acquired an industrialist's mansion Edward Herbst Palace in Księży Młyn (Priest's Mill). Prospects of having a building that could meet exhibition requirements of avant-garde art became real with plans to develop the
Manufaktura Shopping and Entertainment Centre in the former
Izrael Poznański factory.
The ms2 branch In 2006 Jarosław Suchan was appointed the director of the museum and he has been holding the post ever since. Funds acquired from the European Union (under the Integrated Regional Development Operational Programme), the Polish
Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Voivodeship Office, and the Marshal Office in Łódź were used to regenerate and modernise the former spinning mill in the factory of
Izrael Poznański. In the autumn 2008 it became a new location of Muzeum Sztuki known as ms2 offering the space of 3000 m2, which houses the Collection of the 20th and 21st Century Art; further 600 m2 are dedicated to temporary exhibitions. The collection is exhibited in a way that departs from both the chronological arrangement of works of art and the idea of a ‘permanent exhibition’. New exhibition projects, whose aim is to uncover the potential of the collection anew, are underway within the framework of “works on the collection”. According to the programme:
avant-garde is not treated as a closed chapter that belongs to the past but as a set of ideas, which may still be meaningful to a contemporary viewer. == Muzeum’s locations ==