New works in the Collection

The Collection of the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art consequently implements ambitious tasks based on the most comprehensive presentation of features distinguishing Polish art of the recent decades, and at the same time, highlighting its relationship with significant attitudes and trends in the world of art. The Collection is predominantly the result of the rich program of the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, which has been presenting art in the process of change, and thus is also an interpretation of how attitudes, practices, and artistic strategies are observed in the field of contemporary art.

Referencing the sources that inspired Polish contemporary art from the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, which were defined by constructivism and conceptualism, remains essential. The Collection possesses a strong representation of the classics of the Polish neo-avantgarde, including works by artists such as Roman Opałka, Włodzimierz Borowski, Edward Krasinski, Stanisław Dróżdż, Jarosław Kozłowski, Józef Robakowski, Natalia LL, Krzysztof Wodiczko, or Teresa Murak.

Achievements of the artists of the 1980s and 1990s, whose works are still the core of the Collection, are manifested in the diversity of exploration and gradual blurring of genre boundaries, expanding the space of experience in the field of the language of art. From this period, the productions—of the Polish critical art movement—from the ‘90s are of particular importance, whose most eminent representatives debuted at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art.  

The policy of enriching the Collection with new acquisitions is based on specific priorities. One of them is to expand the Collection with classic works of conceptual art, which is still a living reference point for strategies and activities in the latest contemporary art. Monitoring the most noteworthy phenomena of contemporary art, which are manifested above all in the works of outstanding artists of the middle generation, gives the opportunity to broaden the Collection with currently created works of vital artistic significance. And finally, obtaining to the Collection of the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art the art of young, promising artists adds transformative dynamics to the Collection as well as the potential associated with the ongoing transformations of the living field of art.