DEMOKRACJA GRAFIKA: The Democracy of Print

This exhibition celebrates UConn Professor Emeritus of Printmaking Gus Mazzocca’s gift to the Benton of more than 150 prints by Polish artists. The prints came to Mazzocca through the exchange program that he established in 1984 with the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland. Produced largely during the 1970s and 1980s, the prints provide an opportunity to sample artistic production in Krakow during the Cold War, when Poland became a satellite state of the Soviet Union. The exhibition’s title, presented in both Polish and English, suggests how printmaking helped artists involved in the exchange transcend cultural and political barriers to find common ground. The exhibition is a collaboration with the Department of Art and Art History; UConn Global Affairs; and Archives and Special Collections, UConn Library.

Image Credit: Stanisław Wejman (Polish, b. 1944), Inexplainable Adventure (1986). Etching and aquatint, William Benton Museum of Art, Gift of Gus Mazzocca, 2018.4.87.