Art in Exile (Paperback)

This groundbreaking book deals with a body of painters who have been largely marginalized by British art historians – the Polish exiles from war and persecution who made their homes and careers in Britain before or after 1939. It takes ten of them, explores their origins, their often hazardous escape from occupied Europe, their reception and the development of their work. Some who were personally known to the author, such as Herman and Ruszkowski, are – along with Gotlib and others – the subject of searching enquiry; a further group, perhaps better known, like Adler and Potworowski, are also covered. The book has chapters on the Polish contexts from which they came, on the problems East European art has encountered in the West, and on the Polish artistic community in Britain.