O pierwszych i drugich narodzinach słów kilka

Abstract

The topic of the present article are some remarks about the History of Art course at the University of Łódź – how it came into being, how it evolved and developed, and about the present day of the History of Art at the University of Łódź. Our Łódź University was formed in 1945 – immediately after the end of Second World War. History of Art as a subject of academic studies was also introduced at the same time in 1945. At the turning point of the two decades of the 1940s and 1950s our University suffered a very severe economic crisis which was symbolized by the abolition of many academic courses of studies. During this time, Humanities bore especially heavy losses, because History of Art, Archaeology and several other academic courses were completely abolished from the University. It was only three decades later, at the beginning of the 1990s that the History of Art was finally regenerated and ever since it has been regarded as a normal academic course of the Master of Art graduates’ studies at the Philosophical and Historical Department of the University of Łódź. Many people believe that Prof. Mieczysław Wallis was the founder father of our History of Art Department and if this is really true, then it must be underlined that the rebirth and revival of the History of Art studies were solely accomplished in 1990s by a woman-professor Wanda Nowakowska. So today we can truly say that the “first birth and the second birth” of the History of Art at the University of Łódź should be foremost associated with these two extraordinary scholars and Art History experts: Prof. Wallis and Prof. Nowakowska.