“The World of Tomorrow” or “The World of Yesterday”? The Image of an Independent Nation at the 1939 New York World’s Fair

Keywords: world’s fair, world’s expo, New York World’s Fair, Polish pavilion, Brotherhood of St. Luke, Jan Cybulski

Abstract

Poland’s presence at World’s Fairs between the World Wars is a spe­cial issue in that, after a long absence on the map of Europe, the coun­try had the opportunity to show its industrial and cultural achieve­ments in the international arena as an independent exhibitor for the first time. Thus, this event always had a very important political di­mension. Its symbol was the Polish pavilion presented in Paris in 1925, but no less important was the pavilion at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. Although it was a success at the world expo, it was overshadowed by the tragic consequences of the outbreak of World War II almost from the beginning. From today’s perspective, it is worth looking at this object, to evaluate its foundation and ultimate significance, as well as to reflect on the difficult concept of national art, in addition to trac­ing the fate of the pavilion.

Author Biography

Apolonia Filonik, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw

Graduate of Art History at the University of Warsaw and Italian Philology at the Cardinal Wyszyński University in Warsaw. In the field of fine arts, she deals with phenomena in the arts in the twentieth century, especially after World War II. Her in­terests revolve around migration art and literature. She is the author of a Master’s thesis devoted to the London Gimpel Fils Art Gallery (2016), an article Ty i Ja – patrzymy na Zachód [You and I – looking to the West] (2017) and a published Bachelor’s thesis in Italian, about the literary work of Jhumpa Lahiri and Omelia Vorpsi (2019).

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Published
2019-07-01
How to Cite
[1]
Filonik, A. 2019. “The World of Tomorrow” or “The World of Yesterday”? The Image of an Independent Nation at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Perspectives on Culture. 25, 2 (Jul. 2019), 67-82. DOI:https://doi.org/10.35765/pk.2019.2502.06.
Section
The Independence Announced