Polish Exhibition: A Century of Polish Artists in Britain

Focusing on the contribution made by the largest migrant community to 20th/21st Century British Art, this exhibition highlights the work of Polish artists who have worked and continue to work in Britain.

The exhibition tells aspects of the story of the Polish community in Britain, and Poland’s recent
turbulent history, through the lens of art. It traces the complex stories of Polish-born artists who
fled successive regimes, were variously persecuted, imprisoned and interned, crossed continents –
or, today, have made positive choices to come to Britain to study or to develop professionally.
The exhibition brings together a century of artworks and archival material by both celebrated and
lesser-known Polish-born artists selected from the Ben Uri Collection and from Polish institutions,
galleries and private collections. Paintings, posters, prints, drawings, cartoons, book illustrations,
film and sculpture explore issues of identity and migration, whilst intersecting with formal art
historical developments, ranging from expressionism to Pop Art.
Featured artists from the Ben Uri Collection include: Jankel Adler, Henry Glicenstein, Isaac
Lichtenstein, Leopold Pilichowski and his wife, Lena Pillico, Adriana Świerszczek, Alfred Wolmark;
cartoonist and caricaturists: George Him, Ralph Sallon and Mark Wayner; and Holocaust survivors:
Roman Halter, Josef Herman, Shmuel Dresner and Alicia Melamed Adams (the last remaining
student of Bruno Schulz).  Marian Bohusz Szyszko, founder of the Polish School of Art in London;
Henryk Gotlib; Stanisław Frenkiel; Zdzisław Ruszkowski; Feliks Topolski; Second World War pilot
and Slade graduate, Jan Wieliczko; and Marek Żuławski; many highlighted in Douglas Hall’s
important publication, Art in Exile, Polish Painters in Post-war Britain (2008)