A collection accumulated over decades, more than three hundred objects, dozens of friendships – we are launching the Little Big Collections programme at mia ART GALLERY with a selection of several dozen works from the Hermansdorfer Collection.

Abakanowicz, Nowosielski, Lebenstein, Hasior, Makowski, Beksiński, Brzozowski – these are only some of the artists whose works make up the Hermansdorfer collection.

As Prof. Waldemar Okoń, host of the programme, writes: “In his writings about the history of collections and collectors, Krzysztof Pomian notes that collections have always been located between the visible and the invisible world. The visibility concerned their materiality and belonging to the world of things, while the invisible sphere is the world of ideas and various intentions accompanying their accumulation.”

The protagonist of the first collection presentation is Mariusz Hermansdorfer, long-time director of the National Museum in Wrocław, which, thanks to him, is the host to one of the greatest collections of contemporary art in Poland.   As he recalls: “The choice of profession (art historian and critic) and, paradoxically, the poverty of the society in which the collector’s movement ceased for a long time, created relatively large opportunities for acquiring works of art in the form of friendly gifts. Artists, even the most outstanding ones, had limited sales opportunities. The only recipients were state institutions, primarily museums. In 1950-1990, prices were low, practically symbolic. Studios were full of works standing on shelves, turned towards the wall, waiting for contact with a viewer. Art was not the commodity it has become since the 1990s, as it is now. Friendly contacts resulted in, among others, gifts of paintings, illustrations, drawings, products of artistic crafts. ‘Let it be among the people,’ I heard many times…”

Our meetings with collections and collectors will therefore be tales, which would otherwise not take place in the here and now. We hope that these tales will be interesting, just like pulling aside the veil of mystery of events and people, which would otherwise not be revealed, is always interesting. To truly exist, a work of art much have viewers and listeners. In our gallery, the selected works and their collectors will speak, and we invite you to participate in this one of a kind spectacle that perhaps will bring us closer to the history of art history and above to the realm of human emotions, which is so very important today.

Mariusz Hermansdorfer: art historian and critic. He completed his studies in art history at the University of Wrocław in 1966. From 1983 to 2013, he served as director of the National Museum in Wrocław. He initiated the adaptation of the Four Domes Pavilion into the Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as donating his collection of works by Polish contemporary artists to the Museum. He is a member of, among others, the International Association of Art Critics. He specialises in museum work and contemporary art criticism.

THE HERMANSDORFER COLLECTION

mia ART GALLERY

Św. Mikołaja 61-62

Wrocław

15.11 – 20.12.2017

miartgallery.com

gallery open:

Tue-Fri 12 p.m. - 6 p.m., Sat 12 p.m. - 4 p.m.

admission: free

Organiser: mia ART GALLERY

Partners: All That Ar.! Foundation, SleepWalker.pl, Fabrykasensu.pl