1975 – International Women’s Year and the Exhibitions Organised on this Occasion in Warsaw: A Case Study on State Feminism and Art Through a Revisionist Lens
We are coninuing to present texts published in FEMINIST ART HISTORIOGRAPHIES IN EASTERN EUROPE AND LATIN AMERICA issue of “Ikonotheka” 33 (2024).
Authors: Wiktoria Szczupacka
Abstract:
The article centres around International Women’s Year IWY (1975) and the celebrations of this international event in Warsaw – the capital city of the People’s Republic of Poland. Based on archival documents held in the Department of the 20th and 21st Century Visual Arts Documentation at the Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences, correspondence and press reviews, this text describes plans and realisations of art exhibitions related to IWY. This case study aims to add to the growing body of research regarding IWY, especially to the research focused on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain. It adopts a revisionist approach to analysing the intersection of cultural policy and women’s emancipation in the state-socialist context. The 1970s is seen as a unique moment when feminist art rooted in the western second wave met state-socialist initiatives for women’s art.
