Voices of Freedom: Exhibiting Polish Women Artists in the Time of Transition

In September 1991, the exhibition „Polish Women Artists”, curated by Agnieszka Morawińska, opened at the National Museum in Warsaw. A few weeks later, a smaller version of the show, titled „Voices of Freedom: Polish Women and the Avant-Garde, 1880–1990”, opened at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. In this article, I discuss the development of the idea behind both exhibitions, the form they assumed, and their critical reception. I focus on how they reflected a particular moment in Polish history, namely, the first years of the political and economic transition and the situation of women at the time. Focusing on „Polish Women Artists,” I present then-current ideas about the relationship between art and (feminist) politics and how these influenced the understanding of feminist art history and museology in Poland. My subsequent analysis of the „Voices of Freedom” exhibition reveals a different background of the interest in Polish women artists expressed in the United States at the time.