ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the so-called Poznan expressionism—a unique manifestation of the expressionist artistic style that existed in parallel to the second generation of German expressionism, during the interwar period. Historical evaluations of the expressionist movement in Poland began in the 1930s, but were initially limited to studies of literature; most of the research on expressionism by Polish scholars was published in the 1960s and 1970s. During the partition of Poland between the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian Empires from the late eighteenth century to 1918, Polish culture and language were neglected and even prohibited in some parts of the Polish territory. Hence the social engagement typical of German expressionism was replaced by patriotic activity in Polish expressionism. Expressive and expressionist tendencies in Polish art are present still in contemporary art, in part as a programmatic neoexpressionism in the work of artists inspired by Bunt, in part as a movement similar to the Neue Wilde in Germany of 1980s and later.
