Collection II
Collection II owned by the Arsenal Gallery in Białystok is by no means uniform, in reflection of the non-uniformity of art of the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. Presenting leading phenomena in Polish art, it reflects on traces of post-system transformation changes to culture. Concurrently, for reasons rooted within the Gallery’s programme as such, it depicts fundamental tendencies and changes in Belarussian, Ukrainian, Czech, and Armenian art.
The Arsenal Gallery’s Collection II is relatively young – Arsenal made its first Collection-dedicated purchases in 1992. Ever since, Collection II has comprised post-1989 works by Polish and foreign artists (with special attention paid to Central and Eastern Europe). Today, it includes approximately 250 items: paintings, objects, installations, videos, photographs, drawings, and ephemeral works – ideas.
Since 2005, Collection II has been augmented by the Podlaskie Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych (Podlaskie Association for the Promotion of Fine Arts; henceforth: PTZSP), a joint creator of the collection under the Znaki Czasu (Signs of the Times) programme – as of that moment, the compilation has been considered joint property. Artwork purchases were co-funded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, National Centre for Culture, and the City of Białystok; additional funding was also provided by the Podlaskie Voivodeship Marshal’s Office, and – to a limited extent – by private sponsors and artists themselves, the latter contributing sporadic one-time donations.
In the year 2016, the PTZSP closed its operations, formally transferring the ownership of all its collections to the Arsenal Gallery.
Collection II remains under the permanent supervision of conservation experts; it has been fully described and digitised. A number of critical texts concerning the collection have been published, the PTZSP having produced two books on the subject: Kamil Kopania, Arsenał sztuki (The Arsenal of Art), Białystok 2006, and Izabela Kopania, Zbiór otwarty / Open Set, Białystok 2012. Artworks forming part of the collection have been shown at numerous exhibitions organised in Poland and abroad.
PLAN YOUR VISIT
Opening times:
Thuesday – Sunday
10:00-18:00
Last admission
to exhibition is at:
17.30