Polish Artistic Life in the Years 1890-1960 [set of 3 volumes] [1967].

Collective work edited by Alexander Wojciechowski.

"In the title of this publication there is a term: artistic life. With this formulation, we wished to draw attention to the specific nature of the materials collected here; they are primarily concerned with the artist's contacts with the viewer, they speak of the impact of art, of its growing popularity, of its social function, and, finally, of the struggle between various directions, attitudes and groupings. We aimed to show the real balance of power between the art of traditionalists and the art of innovators, between a small handful of artists endowed with outstanding talent and a multitude of mediocre artists whose works prevailed at large group exhibitions. We consciously did not focus our search exclusively around the main actors; we were simultaneously interested in both the spectacle unfolding on stage, and the backstage of the performance, and the reaction of the audience, and the balance sheet of the box office.... So everything that concerned the great spectacle called - the artistic life." [excerpt from "General Remarks"].