Exhibition: American Dream

Exhibition: American Dream What was the America of Polish dreams like, the promised land towards which more than one generation of Poles directed their attention? On the 90th anniversary of the establishing of diplomatic relations between Poland and the USA, the National Museum in Krakow is presenting the American Dream exhibition, focusing on the people, events, ideas and art connected with American culture of the 60’s and 70’s.

For generations of Poles, living out their youth under the communist Polish People’s Republic, the country on the other side of the pond was an oasis of liberty, prosperity and creative freedom. The American cultural experience – beginning with the activities of the 50’s beatniks and ending with the protest movements of the 60’s and 70’s – was the most important aspect, although it wasn’t always possible to keep up to date with it. The point of departure for the creators of the exhibition became Aldona Jawłowska’s 1975 book Drogi kontrkultury (Countercultural Paths), which depicts precisely this “American dream”. The exposition is a kind of artistic and multi-media experiment. It comprises installations, film projections (including documentaries, large format photographs and soundtracks specially created for this project. Louis K. Meisel took on the function of joint-curator. He is a New York collector and father of American photo-realism. Thanks to him, in Kraków we will be able to see paintings by the most important painters of this genre: Ralph Goings, Richard Estes, Robert Cottingham and Robert Bechtle, whose work has never been presented in Poland.

The publications accompanying the exposition are a dictionary containing 300 definitions explaining the phenomena referred to in the exhibition and an album presenting all the borrowed works, provided with a foreword by Louis K. Meisels, as well as information about the artists. The exhibition will also be accompanied by a very rich, inter-disciplinary educational programme.

National Museum in Krakow, Main Building, till 4th October 2009