Innocent Sorcerers

In 1960, Andrzej Wajda directed a film entitled "Niewinni czarodzieje (Innocent Sorcerers)”, written by Jerzy Andrzejewski and Jerzy Skolimowski. Wajda (1926–2016) in years 1946–1949 studied at the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts, beginning his artistic carreer with painting. 

At the same time, in Cracow, based on numerous pre- and post-war artistic initiatives, one of the most recognisable contemporary creative formations was created - II Grupa Krakowska (The Secong Cracow Group), established by outstanding Polish artists, including Tadeusz Kantor, Maria Jarema, Jonasz Stern, Jerzy Nowosielski and Tadeusz Brzozowski. The title of the exhibition, taken from the film, which was unique in Wajda's filmography, is a metaphor for the experience shared among the generation of post-war intelligentsia, who searched for freedom and the possibility of self-expression in art and music (jazz is one of the protagonists in Wajda's film). "Innocent Sorcerers" is an unusual part of Wajda's output. The director used the title to refer to the romantic tradition close to him (the phrase comes from the first part of "Dziady" by Adam Mickiewicz), but the action of the film is based on a different plot idea and refers to other problems and dilemmas than his earlier films, such as "A Generation" , "Ashes and Diamonds" or "Lotna". The innocent sorcerers are young intellectuals and artists who, unable to come to terms with reality, run away from it into self-creation. The relationships among them are based on a specific game and constant confabulation in a closed social circle. They enchant reality, simulate a different, better world, where there are choice, freedom and the possibility of making dreams come true.

The artists who functionned in the reality of real socialism, in the artificial world made in this way, created a substitute for unrestricted freedom. The artistic life in Poland evolved in the 1950s and 1960s from a totalitarian system to a "soft dictatorship". The defrozen cultural policy recognized the creator's right to expressionist emotion and artistic experiment, provided that it did not violate political dogmas. What is characteristic of Polish art of that time is its reluctance to openly opposing practices, especially those concerning the socio-political sphere and criticism of the power system. The Polish formula of modernity treated new artistic trends more aesthetically, whereas in the West they were associated with an attempt to change the way of understanding art and the role of the artist. After the thaw, the representatives of Polish modernism chose the autonomy of art, avoiding socially engaged topics. The exhibition "Innocent Sorcerers", displaying several dozen works from that period: paintings, drawings, prints and reliefs, recalls the artistically unique formation created by outstanding individuals in a specific political context.

 

Innocent Sorcerers. 
Works by the artists of II Grupa Krakowska from the collection of The National Museum in Szczecin

The National Museum in Szczecin – The Museum of Contemporary Art
July 17th – August 29th 2021

Artists: Tadeusz Brzozowski, Maria Jarema, Tadeusz Kantor, Alfred Lenica, Jadwiga Maziarska, Adam Marczyński, Kazimierz Mikulski, Jerzy Nowosielski, Karol Pustelnik, Erna Rosenstein, Janina Kraupe-Świderska, Jerzy Skarżyński, Jonasz Stern, Bogusław Szwacz, Jan Tarasin, Jerzy Tchórzewski, Marian Warzecha, Jerzy Wroński

Curator: Marlena Chybowska-Butler