“Galeria Foksal” was the centre of one of the most important art circles of the second half of the 20th century. The gallery was founded in 1966 in Warsaw and co-created by art critics and artists with an interest in avant-garde art. It exhibited audiovisual installations, environments, and other forms of conceptual art which broke with the traditional forms of painting and sculpture. However, the artists involved in the gallery were first and foremost among the pioneers of action art and happening. Due to their innovative character, many of these activities are now considered to be one of the milestones of Polish modern art. Close cooperation between curators and artists meant that “Galeria Foksal” was also a research institution and was responsible for several theoretical manifestos.

From the beginning, the gallery maintained numerous contacts abroad and exchanged information with art centres in Western Europe. Although it was controlled by state institutions, it gave artists relative freedom. This was not a given, considering the repressive nature of the authorities in the Peoples' Republic of Poland and official censorship. However, the next generation of artists, now referred to as the neo avant-garde of the 1970s, saw “Galeria Foksal” –  which by then enjoyed a dominant position in the Polish art world – as “licensed avant-garde”: that is, tolerated by the authorities as harmless. The group of artists centred around “Galeria Foksal” was also accused of holding an elitist view of art as a practice for a narrow group of the initiated.   

Founders of the gallery included critics Wiesław Borowski, Anka Ptaszkowska, and Mariusz Tchorek, as well as artists Henryk Stażewski, Zbigniew Gostomski, Edward Krasiński, and Roman Owidzki. Soon, Tadeusz Kantor joined the group of permanent collaborators. From the very beginning, the activities of the gallery and the artistic life of the circle of people involved in it were documented by two of the most acclaimed Polish photographers – Eustachy Kossakowski and Tadeusz Rolke. The gallery is active to this day and collaborates with several generations of Polish artists.  

In 1997, the “Galeria Foksal Foundation” was established in the gallery, and was later – following a rift – transformed into an independent institution, now enjoying the status of one of the most prestigious private art galleries in Poland.

Sources:
Galeria Foksal, official website, http://www.galeriafoksal.pl
Galeria Foksal, profile at the Culture.pl portal, http://culture.pl/pl/miejsce/galeria-foksal
Polit Paweł (ed.), Edward Krasiński. Elementarz ABC, Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow 2008.