Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses a new phenomenon in Polish art museum institutions after 2000 - the appearance of spaces dedicated to art historians and theoreticians. The paper focuses on two case studies: Mieczysław Porębski's Library and Jerzy Ludwiński's Archive.

Paper long abstract:

Mieczysław Porębski's Library has existed at MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (Poland) from its very beginning (2012), combining the functions of a reading room and a permanent exhibition. Professor Mieczysław Porębski (1921-2012), historian, art theoretician and critic, donated his private book collection of more than 5 000 items to the museum. In the space arranged to replicate the studio in the Professor's flat in Krakow, there is an exhibition of works by his artist friends - representatives of the canon of Polish post-war art. Jerzy Ludwiński's Archive is a permanent exhibition at the MWW Wrocław Contemporary Museum. It contains writings, drawings, photographs and documentation of Jerzy Ludwiński's activities as an influential art curator and animator of artistic life in Poland. The open forms of both places put the inspiring tension between categories like: library/museum exhibition, text/image, private/public under consideration. It is also a meta-commentary on ways how art history's narrative is being written.