The exhibition Never Again: Art against War and Fascism in the 20th and 21st Centuries addresses the past and present of the anti-fascist and anti-war tradition, as seen through the prism of selected works and artistic figures from the 1930s through today. It is a sketch for a theoretical approach to this issue and a draft of a missing chapter in the history of art: the history of sculpture, painting and drawing as a form of anti-fascist opposition.
The exhibition Never Again: Art against War and Fascism in the 20th and 21st Centuries identifies iconic images and key points in anti-fascist traditions in all these historic moments. Through images, it examines the complexity of the anti-fascist attitude, the diversity of conceptions of the problem—from political satire, witness to atrocities, apocalyptic prophecies, and visual propaganda, to more ambiguous, abstract articulations of pro-democracy and anti-authoritarian content. The study of the history of images accompanying anti-fascist movements is treated as a tool for understanding today’s attitudes and initiatives defining themselves as pro-equality and pro-democracy.
The exhibition presents works by such artists as Maja Berezowska, Izaak Celnikier, Alice Creischer, Wojciech Fangor, George Grosz, John Heartfield, Jonathan Horowitz, Maria Jarema, Bronisław Wojciech Linke, Dora Maar, Goshka Macuga, Alice Neel, Marek Oberländer, Stanisław Osostowicz, Raymond Pettibon, Pablo Picasso, Erna Rosenstein, Wilhelm Sasnal, Jonasz Stern, Alina Szapocznikow, Jerzy Tchórzewski, Wolfgang Tillmans and Andrzej Wróblewski.
The exhibition is held as part of Anti-Fascist Year,