Gifts of Friendship

The exhibition is being held in two branches, ms¹ and ms², and presents the gift as a special way of building a community, a relationship, and trust. It shows that a museum collection is a result of artistic solidarity and cooperation beyond borders.

This is especially important for the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, which grew out of the gesture of the gift: from the a.r. group’s donation of the International Collection of Modern Art to the residents of Łódź in 1931. The Muzeum was born of an administrative decision, but also as a result of friendship and creative collaboration. Katarzyna Kobro, Władysław Strzemiński, Henryk Stażewski, Jan Brzękowski, and Julian Przyboś not only formed a new collection, they designed a new institutional model based on trust and exchange, not just ownership rights. Owing to the gifts they received from artists of the European avant-garde, such as Hans Arp, Alexander Calder, Theo van Doesburg, Max Ernst, Fernand Léger, Kurt Schwitters, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and Georges Vantongerloo, Łódź gained a collection of international significance. 

The Gifts of Friendship exhibition brings this founding gesture up to date. It shows that art can operate and circulate beyond the logic of the market, as a gesture of solidarity, a sign of a relationship, and an obligation to the community. A special point of reference is the donation of Polentransport 1981 by Joseph Beuys, a gift in which artistic friendship and social solidarity are balanced. Today, in times of rising tensions, the economy of the gift again acquires special meaning.

In 2024, the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź sent a letter to artists, in which it recalled the birth of the a.r. collection and a community built around action. The appeal came as a result of the reopening of the Muzeum to intensive international cooperation. The result is the largest wave of gifts for the Muzeum since the historical collection of the a.r. group in 1931. Some of the donated works were added to the permanent exhibition, Ways of Seeing: The Collection of the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, in 2025. 

The artists who decided to give this support the Muzeum Sztuki have different approaches to the meaning of the gift, but they agree when it comes to the act itself. “It was a revelation—to be able to see the work of Kobro and Strzemiński in their natural context,” commented British artist Liam Gillick, who was first presented at the Muzeum Sztuki in 1995. “On that first visit, I donated works to the collection and I feel enormously honored to be able to do it again, thirty years later. This is my tribute to the pioneers of the avant-garde.” The Gifts of Friendship exhibition includes work by artists who have been associated with the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź for years (including Liam Gillick, Sharon Lockhart, and R.H. Quaytman), those who have recently collaborated with the museum (such as Veronika Hapchenko, Agata Ingarden, Mykyta Kadan, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Mykola Ridnyi, Aura Rosenberg, Wilhelm Sasnal, Janek Simon, and Anton Vidokle), and those whose works are now joining the collection (including Andrea Fraser, Ghislaine Leung, Josiah McElheny, John Miller, Jeff Preiss, Willem de Rooij, Hito Steyerl, Franz Erhard Walther, and Gabriele Stötzer). Many pieces are monumental installations that enhance the collections, in which designing a space is all-important. Visitors can also find works returning to the museum to stay—ones seen in previous temporary exhibitions, now joining the collection to stay. A few objects also mark a gift from the Archive of Richard Demarco (a separate presentation is planned for 2027–28).

The exhibition of these artists asks: What is symbolized by donating works to a public collection in 2026, in an epoch when everything has a price tag? What does it mean in our day to “give,” receive,” or “reciprocate”? Does the gratitude of the recipient contradict the disinterest of the donor? Is it possible to make a gesture that does not boil down to a transaction? 

Gifts of Friendship reminds us that, although the Muzeum can be seen as a place for storing works of art, it is also a space of reciprocation—an institution that exists through relationships, which makes it responsible for them. This exhibition recalls the past of the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź and shows the latest donations. It also speaks of the future of the public institution, which is rereading the history of the avant-garde as a duty to build a community through art.

Honorary patronage

The exhibition Ways of Seeing. Collection of Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź is under the honorary patronage of Marta Cienkowska , the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and Joanna Skrzydlewska, the Marshal of the Łódź Voivodeship.

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