Post by pieter on Nov 17, 2014 8:25:04 GMT -7
40 years of contemporary art from Poland
At the end of 1974 Ewa Walinska started her gallery on Church Street (Kerkstraat) in Arnhem.
When Poland was still behind the Iron Curtain, the Netherlands had not yet met with the idiotic phrase "Polish problem" (now fortunately no one's talking about), and that even in what was called eastern Europe back then, "real" art was made, was a well kept secret. In that situation, it took some courage to open a gallery of art from Poland.
Ewa was chasing her love Eric and traveled to Arnhem. Through her education and her work in museums and galleries in Warsaw she knew many artists personally and found out that they just wanted to have a place where they could show their work ("an address in the West") and they of course liked to sell their work. In these fourty years dozens of Polish artists have exhibited their work in Church Street. For some of them it was even their first "own" exhibition, and the beginning of a successful career.
During the first years, she had to overcome a lot of bureaucratic barriers, often both in Poland and in the GDR (DDR; East-Germany) as "transit" route. After the Polish Round Table conference with Lech Walesa and Jaruzelski in June 1989, followed by the fall of the Berlin Wall in November, but especially after the accession of Poland to the EU in 2004, matters changed materially. Polish artists are now free to work anywhere in the EU and to exhibit. Given the quality of their training and the intensity of their work, there is now less need for a gallery specializing in contemporary art from Poland. It seems that the exhibition in September will be the last explicitly-scale exhibition in Ewa's gallery.
Her September 2014 Exhibition was supported by watercolors by Pawel Dmoch. He has made presentations throughout Europe, this time with accents in Venice, the cities along the Mediterranean (including Barcelona) and England.
Ewa Walinska receives 'the Arnhem girl' (Het Arnhemse Meisje), a honorary decoration for people who mean something for Arnhem, from the mayor of Arnhem
Ewa Walinska is looking pleased with the attention she got saturday
The blond woman in the middle is the christian democratic alderwoman, Ine van Burgsteden
The man on the right is the Dutch husbant of Ewa Walinska, Eric Termeulen, a former christian democratic (centre right) councillor.
Ewa Walinska with the Polish president in May 2014.
Ewa Walinska with christian democratic alderwoman Inez van Burgsteden of culture
Ewa Walinska and her husbant Eric Termeulen with the Arnhem mayor in her Ewa Walinska Galerie.
The gallery Ewa Walinska in the city center of Arnhem. The gallery shows art from Polish artists
An example of Polish art in her gallery in Arnhem
