CoCA in Torun presents works from one of the most significant art collections of the second half of the 20^th century. A selection of artworks, chosen out of over 10.000 pieces that constitute the District Museum’s collection, reflect certain directions of polish art and expresses the various attitudes of the most important polish artists. With time, the exhibited artworks have acquired a historical perspective, being unanimously recognised as realisations with a firmly established position and often revolutionary meaning.

The Bydgoszcz Museum’s longtime tradition of collecting art was initiated in between the World Wars; it was the Municipal Museum, inaugurated in 1923, that began to collect artworks systematically in order to create a gallery of polish art. After 1945 the collecting was consistently continued, with special emphasis put on contemporary art. The artworks were deliberately acquired from various national expositions and current museum’s displays, but mostly – directly from the artists’ studios. The collection was later completed by the donations of artists themselves or their inheritors. Therefore the collection, being an effect of long-term gathering practice, constitutes one of the most important art assemblages in Poland.

The display attempts to include various reflections of polish art during the last 60 years, containig works of such polish artists as: Jan Cybis, Piotr Potworowski, Tadeusz Brzozowski, Teresa Pągowska, Zbigniew Makowski, Roman Opałka, Leon Tarasewicz, Grzegorz Klaman, Zofia Kulik, Zbigniew Libera, Tadeusz Kantor, Andrzej Wróblewski, Jerzy Nowosielski, Marcin Berdyszak, Izabella Gustowska, Józef Robakowski, and many others.060