The Collection of Contemporary Sculpture

The Collection of Contemporary Sculpture

The Collection of Contemporary Sculpture was isolated from the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw and transported to Królikarnia in 2001. Separated from other artistic genres, it demonstrates how the status of sculpture as an object, an element of performance or installation art changed in the 20th century. It consists of 1417 objects, starting from Henryk Kuna’s classicism-inspired sculptures, via avant-garde spatial forms made of metal displayed in Elbląg in 1965, Alina Szapocznikow’s experimental pieces, Henryk Stażewski’s hand-painted slippers, to a conceptual work created by Iza Tarasewicz in Królikarnia in 2013. The collection is heterogeneous, combining works by artists unknown within the context of contemporarily written art history as well as names emblematic of it, including Edward Wittig, Katarzyna Kobro, Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz, Barbara Zbrożyna, Władysław Hasior, Jerzy Bereś, Maria Pinińska-Bereś, Krzysztof Bednarski, the Kijewski/Kocur duo, Joanna Rajkowska and Agnieszka Polska. However, if we forget the names and see the collection as part of a comprehensive and inter-genre story about art – it will be realism of the interwar period and ensuing social realism of the 1950s, post-Thaw sculptures with organic abstract forms and avant-garde works made of metal that stand out. Containing purchased pieces as well as works presented as gifts, the collection keeps growing. We accept works that are already historical as well as contemporary ones – those encouraging reflection on the status and function of sculpture from the perspective of blurred boundaries typical of our world, as well as those engaging in institutional critique.