Three lorries carrying the first batch of the collection—including more than 1,300 artworks and 865 boxes of photographs, posters, films, catalogues, correspondence and curatorial notes—have arrived in the city, museum officials said.
The entire Demarco collection, which was previously based in Edinburgh, will now be cared for by the Museum of Art in Łódź, with which Demarco has long-standing ties.
The Łódź Museum of Art at 36 Więckowskiego Street is housed in a historic neo-Renaissance palace built by 19th-century cotton magnate Izrael Poznański for his son Maurycy—a proud symbol of the city's post-industrial heritage. Photo: Ainka, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Speaking at a news conference at the museum on Tuesday, Culture and National Heritage Minister Marta Cienkowska described the collection as "truly unique," saying it contains source materials that will allow research into Polish avant-garde art and its relations with the West at a time when such exchanges faced political and institutional restrictions.
She said cooperation with Western institutions helped Polish artists maintain creative freedom under communism.
The collection includes works by the likes of Magdalena Abakanowicz, Tadeusz Kantor, Joseph Beuys, Pat Douthwaite and Daniel Spoerri, as well as vast documentation about Kantor’s Cricot-2 Theatre, which Demarco invited many times to Scotland, in addition to files documenting Demarco’s contacts with Polish artists such as Jerzy Bereś, Edward Krasiński, Józef Robakowski and Zbigniew Warpechowski.
In an online link-up, Demarco, who turned 95 earlier this year, said he was delighted that part of his collection had found a home in Łódź.
"I think Poles have become a part of my soul," Demarco said, adding that he considers himself both a European and a citizen of the Polish city.
Daniel Muzyczuk, director of the Museum of Art in Łódź, described Demarco as one of the most important figures on the European arts scene of the past seven decades.
"He is not only a curator and patron of the arts but, above all, a builder of cultural bridges, who has spared no effort in creating avenues for exchange between East and West, as well as between northern and southern Europe," Muzyczuk said of Demarco.
Eleven works from the Demarco collection were purchased by Poland with funding from the culture ministry, which also covered transportation costs. The project was carried out in cooperation with British partners including Papple Farm, the University of Dundee and National Galleries Scotland.
Demarco has long fostered cultural ties with Poland, beginning with his invitation to Kantor's Cricot 2 Theatre to perform at the Edinburgh Festival in the 1970s.
He has visited Poland about 50 times and has received numerous honours, including the Gold Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Polish Culture and an honorary doctorate from the Academy of Fine Arts in the southwestern city of Wrocław.
(mk/gs)
Source: gov.pl