Jacek Woźniakowski as a Critic of Contemporary Art

Abstract

This paper focuses on Jacek Woźniakowski's origin as a critic of art. It shows the kind of tradition he valued, he drew on, and whose importance for Polish art he had always defended. We refer here to Woźniakowski's views on the questions of novelty, modernity, and innovation in art, how these concepts were understood by the first avant-garde, and how they functioned in the years of the author's activity as a critic of contemporary art. This paper also refers to the ideas that legitimise the concepts. Woźniakowski is involved in a critical debate on those ideas.

This paper then discusses the tradition that was Woźniakowski-critic's foundation. Józef Czapski, the advocate of the Capists' ideas is brought to focus, his ideological text, and a brief outline of his work is presented. We can see how the Capists affected Woźniakowski's way of thinking and evaluation, and, eventually, his system of values is outlined; it is based on this tradition that he regarded as “a stage not to be bypassed” in Polish art.