Patryk Pawel Tomaszewski
Adjunct Lecturer of Art
Music and Art
EMAIL: ptomaszewski@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office:
Office Hours: Thursday, 12PM to 1PM and by appointment (Spring 2022)
Phone:
Patryk P. Tomaszewski is an Adjunct Lecturer at Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, where he has taught since Fall 2016, and a Ph.D. candidate in Art History at The Graduate Center, CUNY. His dissertation examines Socialist Realist art in Poland between 1949 and 1959. By focusing on state-sponsored exhibitions of painting and sculpture under the Stalinist regime, it analyzes the ways in which the cultural model of Socialist Realism—and the idealized version of reality it hoped to transmit—was received, institutionalized, and circulated in East Central European states during the immediate post-war era.
Mr. Tomaszewski was previously the Mellon Humanities Alliance Teaching Fellow at La Guardia Community College. He also completed internship programs at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. His writing has been published, among other outlets, in ArtMargins Online and post. Notes on Modern and Contemporary Art Around the Globe managed and edited by the curatorial staff at MoMA. More recently, he served as a contributor to a monograph of Polish contemporary artist, Xawery Wolski, published by Skira in 2020. In October 2021, Mr. Tomaszewski curated the exhibition “Henryk Stazewski: Constructing Reliefs” at the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York.
He received a B.A. with Honors in Art History and German from Fordham University in New York, an M.A. in History of Art and Archaeology from The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, and an M.Phil. in Art History from The Graduate Center, CUNY. At BMCC, Mr. Tomaszewski teaches ART104: Art History Survey II and ART106: Modern and Contemporary Art.
Expertise
Western modern art; Eastern European and Russian modern art; Socialist Realism; history of photography; European art under totalitarian regimes; history of abstraction
Degrees
- M. Phil. in Art History, The Graduate Center, CUNY (2019)
- M.A. in History of Art and Archaeology, The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (2016)
- B.A. with Honors in Art History and German, Fordham University (2014)
Courses Taught
- Using a global approach, this introduction to art history includes the study of painting, sculpture, architecture and other media by surveying the Renaissance through the start of the twentieth century. The exploration of techniques, media, composition, and figure representation will provide an understanding of key concepts in the arts with additional focus on the historical and social context, which developed the meaning and changing styles in different cultures as well as the effects of cultural exchange through the arts.
- This introduction to Modern and Contemporary art history includes the study of painting, sculpture, architecture and other media by surveying the development and evolution of artistic styles using a global approach. Emphasis will be placed on groundbreaking artistic movements in context to their historical framework. Students will learn the importance of innovative practices, techniques and new avenues of exploration, by understanding the socio-political and cultural events that influenced artists to create groundbreaking works, which have led the way to Contemporary Art.
Research and Projects
My current research focuses on the history of Socialist Realist art and exhibitions of Socialist Realism in Central and Eastern Europe during the Stalinist regime.
Most recently, I have presented a paper on the development of Polish Socialist Realism, which focuses on the post-war work of Felicjan Szczęsny-Kowarski, in the guest Polish Section at XXXVI. Deutscher Kunsthistorikertag (March 23-27, 2022) in Stuttgart, Germany.
Publications
- “Henryk Stażewski’s Path to Reliefs, 1950-1959” in Henryk Stażewski: Constructing Reliefs exh. cat. (New York: The Kościuszko Foundation, 2021), 12-28.
- “Chains and Crosses: The Political Iconography of Xawery Wolski’s Dark Series (1988-1992)” in Ed. Vincenza Russo, Xawery Wolski (Milan: Skira Editore, 2020), 29-43.
- “The Many Lives of El Lissitzky’s Proun 19D (1920 or 1921)” post. Notes on Modern and Contemporary Art Around the Globe (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2019).
- “Female Artists and the Surrealist Body in East Central Europe after 1945” The Female Gaze exh. cat. (New York: Heather James Fine Art, 2019), 36-41.
- “Wojciech Fangor’s Movement in the Early 1960s” Wojciech Fangor: The Early 1960s (New York: Heather James Fine Art, 2018), 4-11.
Honors, Awards and Affiliations
- Kosciuszko Foundation Research Grant, The Kosciuszko Foundation, New York (2021)
- Rose Carol Washton Long Travel Grant, The Graduate Center, CUNY (2018)
- Mellon Humanities Alliance Fellowship, The Graduate Center, CUNY (2017-2019)
- Leon Levy and Shelby White Travel Grant, The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU (2015)