This book is the very first monograph of one of the largest collections of avant-garde art in Europe – the Archive of Franciszka Themerson and Stefan Themerson. Honorata Sroka poses a fundamental research question to the materials being analysed: how are avant-garde ideas realised in the archive? Nevertheless, the titular collection does not limit the scope of the issues addressed in this publication, as the adjective ‘avant-garde’ is linked to the proposal of a new theoretical perspective related to the collections of artists. By presenting the case of the Themersons against the backdrop of several other institutions – which were vanguard in the sense that they employed experimental ideas in their organisational methods (museums, galleries, schools) – Sroka develops the theory of the ‘avant-garde archive’ as a tool for analysing collections that break away from the traditional paradigm of preserving traces of the past.
About Author
Honorata Sroka, PhD is assistant professor at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Funding
Publikacja sfinansowana ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki w ramach projektu „Archiwum awangardy. Interpretacje korespondencji Franciszki i Stefana Themersonów”, nr 2023/49/N/HS2/00284.
LanguagePolish
Title in EnglishThe Avant-Garde Archive. The Experimental Life Writing by Franciszka and Stefan Themerson