Gest etyczny Katarzyny Kobro

A conversation that took place in 1945 between Katarzyna Kobro (1898–1951) and the Director of the Museum of Art in Łódz, Marian Mi-nich, provides the inspiration for this text and also the axis of its narrative. At that time, the artist had donated several of her pre-war sculptures to the Museum’s collection. The concise remarks made during the meeting referred to the functionalist theory of sculpture and to refl ections on its exposition and reception. Each of these themes will be developed in the text. The purpose of the discussion is to arrive at an understanding of what the term „ethical moment”, which Kobro used at the end of her meeting with Minich, actually means. The question of ethics relates to the shape of human relationships, the latter infl uencing not just the artist’s biography, but also the fate of her sculptures, their display in the Neoplastic Room organized by Władysław Strzeminski. The issue of the maker’s intention, following Mieke Bal, abandoned in studies of artistic output, exists however in pronouncements regarding artistic theory and its ethics, related in Kobro’s case to the idea of functionalism, social utility and the human form of sculpture. Our analysis of Kobro’s nudes and abstract sculptures is thus an attempt to discover the essence of this art’s ethical dimension. The instruments of description are terms taken from Kobro’s theoretical writings and philosophical concepts. An important reference is Martin Heidegger’s lecture “Art and Space”, in which he introduces the concept of sculpture as a body occupying a place in space, spreading itself out in the world. The theory of the relationship between truth and art, sculpture and space, that is fundamental to the Heideggerian triad of building, dwelling, thinking, becomes an important reference in the analysis of Kobro’s concept, the opening of her sculptures to space, the creating of functionalist projects. It also allows us to come closer to understanding the essence of her work’s “ethical moment”, which she called for in her conversation with Minich.