Distinction in the 3rd "Museum Book of the Year 2024" Competition for the book "The 1982 Cultural Exchange Between Łódź and Los Angeles"

A publication devoted to the Polish-American project from 1982, which resulted in the exchange of works of art. Polish artists then donated their works to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA), while artists living in the United States enriched the collection of the Museum of Art in Łódź. The publication is available only in English.

With this publication we wish to honor fifty artists who donated their artworks to foreign museums. What this book is calling “the Polish–American exchange” was an initiative of a group of Warsaw-based artists who wanted to establish contact with their colleagues abroad. The art scene in a Soviet satellite country had its limitations, to say the least, but there were still exceptional places and people who made their mark. During the directorship of Ryszard Stanisławski, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź was one of them. Its origins, dating back to the 1920s, intertwined with biographies of the most interesting postwar artists, and led to significant art donations. Polish artists offered their pieces to the newly established Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA), and those based in the United States contributed to the Muzeum Sztuki’s collection. Although 1982 marks the first public presentation of these donations, it was a year later that these pieces were processed and included in the inventory. With this publication we celebrate the anniversary of the formal gesture which sealed the exchange.

The book is published in two language versions:

• polish (ebook)
• english (print), it can be purchased stationary at the ms2 Bookshop at Ogrodowa 19 St. and at the ms1 cash point at Gdańska 43 St. or here via the online bookstore

Échange entre artistes 1931–1982, Pologne-USA: the Polish-American Artistic Exchange carried out in cooperation with The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles and in cooperation with the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles

Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland under the Inspiring Culture program