The Dark Arts: Balto-Slavic Symbolism Through Waliszewska at MoMA Warsaw

The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw presents 'The Dark Arts', a transhistorical exhibition centered on Polish painter Aleksandra Waliszewska, featuring 132 of her untitled gouache works that blend camp horror with Balto-Slavic symbolism. The show integrates over 80 additional works from the Middle Ages to the 1970s, emphasizing Waliszewska's relationship to predecessors and the distinct cultures of Poland, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, and Baltic states, rejecting Russian pan-Slavic imperialism. Curated by Alison M. Gingeras and Natalia Sielewicz, the exhibition positions Waliszewska as an antidote to ethnonationalist and objectifying currents in historical symbolism, though her work raises questions about gender binaries and self-exoticization. Highlights include Bronisław Linke's 'Pink Track' (1948) addressing Holocaust trauma, and Karel Šlenger's 'Jellyfish' (1930s). The exhibition runs through 2 October.