How to Showcase Design?
Exhibitions of Polish Furniture in the Years 1945–1970
Abstract
The aim of the article is to analyse and present post-war furniture exhibitions organized between 1945 and 1970. This overview makes it possible to identify and discuss several key exhibition trends that developed during the period of Poland’s post-war reconstruction and modernization. The primary sources for this research include press articles published both in professional journals and popular magazines, as well as catalogues and documentation accompanying the exhibitions. The survey of exhibitions is arranged chronologically, which allows for tracing the evolution of furniture presentation methods and the changing aesthetic and functional concepts. The conducted research enabled the identification of several exhibition models.The first model can be described as traditional—it involved arranging interior displays within museum spaces that resembled fragments of apartments or rooms of standard dimensions. Individual pieces of furniture were also frequently exhibited, supplemented with mock-ups, design drawings, and technical boards, allowing visitors to better understand the process of their creation.The second model, rooted in the 1930s, consisted of furnishing real residential interiors in newly constructed buildings. Such exhibitions aimed to demonstrate the practical application of modern furniture and the principles of rational design in everyday life. A new phenomenon that emerged after 1945 was the use of exhibitions as both educational and propagandistic tools. Organizers sought to shape public taste, promote functional and aesthetically coherent arrangements for small living spaces, and encourage the use of furniture that symbolized progress and modernity. However, the analysis shows that despite ambitious ideological and design assumptions, the realization of these concepts faced significant limitations. In the context of chronic shortages of goods and difficulties in industrial furniture production, the ideals of modern and functional interior furnishing often remained confined to the realm of exhibition visions rather than everyday reality.
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