After its successful debut in 2025 with the Romantic Brutalism exhibition, dedicated to the historical and contemporary legacy of Polish arts and crafts, the Visteria Foundation returns to the capital of Lombardy with a new exhibition titled Polish Modernism. A Struggle for Beauty. The show will provide a multithreaded narrative about the various forms of this movement and, by featuring contemporary objects alongside historical works, will allow visitors to discover just how strongly modernist ideas continue to influence contemporary Polish design culture. The exhibitions’ curators are: Federica Sala, independent expert working with leading international institutions and member of the Programme Council of the Visteria Foundation and Anna Maga, curator of the Design Collection at the National Museum in Warsaw.
The exhibition, set on the 16th floor of Milan’s iconic Torre Velasca, a landmark of post-war modernity, will shed light on how Poland’s turbulent history gave rise to a sui generis modernism in which the decorative arts retained a central role, rather than yielding entirely to the traditional form–function dichotomy. This modernism – as suggested by the title of the show, referring to an article by Irena Krzywicka, published in 1948 – fiercely struggled for beauty understood not merely as aesthetic refinement, but as an act of cultural resistance by a nation that forged its own identity through art, literature, and design.
“Polish modernism has always fascinated me by virtue of its courage. It emerged from scarcity – from linen, hemp, wood shavings, sometimes from >>all sorts of rubbish<<, as Irena Krzywicka wrote – and yet, it carried ambitions on a truly European scale. It’s an extraordinary lesson: talent and imagination can achieve far more than raw materials” – says Katarzyna Jordan, president and founder of the Visteria Foundation. “In Milan, we are not presenting a visual aesthetic, but rather a way of thinking. Polish modernism was a multifaceted project – it combined art, industry, and a responsibility for everyday life. That is why it interests me not as nostalgia, but as a competence for the future,” she adds.
In addition to unique works on loan from the archive of the National Museum in Warsaw, such as furniture by Jan Kurzątkowski, Bohdan Lachert and Teresa Kruszewska, the exhibition will feature selected works by artists whose designs reflect the influence of modernist ideas, including Mati Sipiora, Marek Bimer, Aleksandra Hyz, Monika Patuszyńska, and Małgorzata Markiewicz. Tomek Rygalik, Maria Jeglińska-Adamczewska, Paweł Olszczyński, Igor Polasiak (Craftica Gallery) and Maja Ganszyniec were commissioned to create objects especially for the exhibition.
Polish Modernism. A Struggle for Beauty exhibition also features a room furnished by the Institute of Industrial Design (Instytut Wzornictwa Przemysłowego, IWP). Wzorcownia 2.0 is an IWP project aimed at bringing back to life iconic designs stored in its archive. Contemporary designers working in Poland were tasked with reinterpreting icons of Polish furniture design – such as the classic wall unit (meblościanka) or the convertible armchair known as amerykanka – and lending them a modern dimension. These are not mere reconstructions of forms, but rather experimental prototypes that illustrate the underlying logic of modernist thinking. Wzorcownia 2.0 places Polish design experiments within the broader international debate on quality, design standards, and responsible production.
As before, the exhibition presented by the Visteria Foundation is not intended to provide an academic review chronologically recounting the development of modernism in Poland. Instead, it is an artistic statement, part of which is the powerful conceptual architecture by Zofia Wyganowska Studio, which engages in dialogue with the existing space and the heritage of Polish and Italian modernism. The exhibition is complemented by works of art by renowned Polish artists such as Władysław Strzemiński, Edward Krasiński, and Katarzyna Kobro. The latter will be given particular prominence, as one of her sculptures will symbolically mark the entrance to the exhibition.
“Polish modernism was always something more than just a style. It represented a yearning to be part of the mainstream of European art and architecture – to take part in a dialogue from which, throughout history, we were too often excluded. Before the war, it meant reclaiming agency for a young state, and after the war – a refusal to accept attempts to isolate us from the flow of European ideas. Modernism served as a form of silent resistance: evidence that we were thinking in the same terms as those in Paris or Milan, even while operating under vastly different circumstances. That is why this exhibition in Milan carries such symbolic weight for me. It is not a sentimental return to the past – rather, it completes a certain gesture while simultaneously extending it. The “struggle for beauty” was, in essence, a struggle for a place at the common table. Today, we occupy that place not out of a sense of inferiority, but because of our competences,” explains Katarzyna Jordan.
“Modernism is a broad and inherently ambiguous concept. For this reason, it is worth revisiting the classical phase of modernism during the interwar years of the twentieth century. At that time, modernism signified much far to artists than merely an aesthetic shift towards a contemporary style. The move towards geometric, simplified, and synthetic forms were not merely formal experiments. Rooted in innovative structural solutions and the application of new technologies, these developments were intended to serve a clear purpose – to benefit the common man and improve the quality of everyday life. This idealized model of creative practice, became the gold standard for good design, but never imposed rigid canons: designers balanced structural and functional values with their own temperament and sensitivity. This dynamic explains the diverse shades of Polish modernism, from functionalist austerity to later reinterpretations. Throughout the twentieth century, one can recognize cyclical phases that return to the austerity characteristic of modernist style, alternating with periods marked by a stronger inclination towards ornamentation. In the exhibition, we present Bohdan Lachert’s classically functionalist deckchair alongside Aleksander Kuczma’s postmodernist chair, in order to highlight both the contrast and the complementary nature of these two strands of Polish modernism,” – explains Anna Maga.
“In a world of dizzying growth, where production has become overproduction, or production that is no longer sustainable, what does it mean today to be modern? What are the needs of a modern society? These are the questions the exhibition seeks to raise, asking whether today it may not be the decorative arts, or more broadly the applied arts, that are more modern precisely because they are more human, representing the ultimate territory of spiritual, aesthetic, and material research, free from the temporal laws of productivity,” says Federica Sala.
“Throughout successive decades, the notion of modernity has been defined in art and design in many different ways. How is it understood today – in an era of overproduction, political crises, and climate catastrophe? Does Polish modernity differ in any way from international modernity? How has our country’s difficult history influenced Polish modernism? The struggle for beauty has never been a struggle for decorative arts – it has been a struggle for quality of life, and this question sounds more relevant today than ever before,” reiterates Katarzyna Jordan, president and founder of the Visteria Foundation.
Following Milan Design Week, in September 2026, the exhibition will be presented at Visteria Foundation’s headquarters, the Gawroński Villa in Warsaw.
All artists featured in the exhibition:
Agnieszka Bar, Marek Bimer, Maria Chomentowska, Jacek Damięcki, Maja Ganszyniec, Zbigniew Horbowy, Aleksandra Hyz, Paweł Jasiewicz (Craftica Gallery), Ania Jaworska, Maria Jeglińska-Adamczewska, Julia Keilowa, Katarzyna Kobro, Edward Krasiński, Teresa Kruszewska, Rudolf Krzywiec, Aleksander Kuczma, Jan Kurzątkowski, Bohdan Lachert, Małgorzata Markiewicz, Roman Modzelewski, Paweł Olszczyński, Alicja Patanowska, Monika Patuszyńska (Objekt Gallery), Igor Polasiak (Craftica Gallery), Rest Studio, Tomek Rygalik, Wszewłod Sarnecki, Wiesław Sawczuk, Mati Sipiora, Władysław Strzemiński, Władysław Wincze, Wojciech Zamecznik
Institutional partners:
The National Museum in Warsaw, The Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and The Institute of Industrial Design.
Exhibition partners: Audi, Omnires, Glo
Polish Modernism. A Struggle for Beauty
Exhibition presented by the Visteria Foundation
20–26 April 2026
Address: Torre Velasca, Piazza Velasca 3/5, 16th Floor