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<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=135 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="985" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 75 ><NOBR><div> <B> </B><I><B>Witaj !</B></I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Arial" ><I><B> </B></I></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Polonia in Boston</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <A HREF="http://www.polboston.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.polboston.com"><I><IMG SRC="0086e400.png" border=0 width="110" height="64" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><bR> <div> <I><B>PolBoston.</B></I><I><B>c</B></I><I><B>om</B></I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER><NOBR><div> <B><IMG SRC="1b72b450.gif" border=0 width="299" height="69" 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TITLE="The Boston Sculpture of Partisans "><B><IMG SRC="01839410.jpg" border=0 width="57" height="65" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A><B> </B><A HREF="index_3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Boston Sculpture of Partisans "><B><IMG SRC="01a2f410.jpg" border=0 width="47" height="65" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A></div> <div> <B> in the Boston Common</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id12.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Partisans Detention Camp in Boston"><IMG SRC="0eb513c0.jpg" border=0 width="81" height="60" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A> <A HREF="id12.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Partisans Detention Camp in Boston"><IMG SRC="0ea3b3c0.jpg" border=0 width="59" height="60" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id12.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Partisans Detention Camp in Boston"><B>"Detention Camp" in Boston</B></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=345 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> <I>Articles:</I><I> </I></div> <div> Angora - <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tygodnik Angora 29 stycznia 2006">29 stycznia</A></div> <div> Angora - <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tygodnik Angora 5 luty 2006">5 luty</A></div> <div> Polboston - <A HREF="id16.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Partisans in Gulag article">February 24</A></div> <div> The Boston Globe - <A HREF="#polish__partisans__find_a_new_home" TITLE="Articles:">March 29</A></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Arial" >Letters</FONT> <A HREF="letter_to_t__menino.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Letters:"><B>>></B></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="http://www.mallatclifton.com/mallatclifton/publication/posteagle.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.mallatclifton.com/mallatclift"><IMG SRC="074e80f0.jpg" border=0 width="1000" height="783" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A></div> <div> Above is a part of article by Stanley Dzierzeski, publicized in New England<B> "White Eagle"</B>, Feb. 3, 2006 (p.7, Polonia's News)</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="the_article_in_white_eagle"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>The article:</B></div> <bR> <div> <B> Scorned Polish Partisan Sculpture Ousted from Boston Common</B></div> <bR> <div>      Missing just recently from its place in the Boston Commons the somewhat controversial and striking “Partisans” sculpture of five emaciated, bedraggled horsemen that has been at the foot of Boston Common for nearly a quarter century.  The City of Boston hired a moving company to dig up the 8,000 pound sculpture and hauled it to a storage facility.  Now it is gone and may I ask is it damaged?</div> <div>       ”The Partisans” was created by Polish sculptor, Andrzej Pitynski, as a tribute to guerilla freedom fighters everywhere.</div> <div> Pitynski was born in 1947 to Polish parents who were these “Partisans”.  Partisans were the name given to Polish and other persecuted guerilla fighters who hid in the forests of Europe to not only fight the German Army but also the Soviet communist.  They did the best they could, on foot or horseback, starving and many times dying for their beliefs that they should be able to live and enjoy the same freedoms as anyone else.  For Poland the Partisans better known as Armii Krajowa had little choice in World War II to carry on guerilla warfare as Hitler's orders were to annihilate all Poles and for the Communist Soviets to help in their demise.         </div> <div>      </div> <div> Andrzej P. Pitynski came to the United States in 1974, and sculpted the work in 1979. The cavalry was meant to be displayed in Warsaw, Poland, but due to communism and the disturbing nature of the work, it was not welcomed. The work was without a home until it was placed on the Boston Common in 1982.</div> <div> The sculpture “Partisans” is intended as a tribute to guerrilla freedom fighters everywhere; the artist, in other words, had no war, no names, nobody specific in mind. And it reads as generic. Five bedraggled men on horseback, their postures hyperbolic as a press release, hold their bayoneted rifles like slim, sharpened crucifixes. Featureless and interchangeable, they register like a public-service announcement on the dangers of overexertion.  In doing so, it satisfies the idea of memorializing guerrilla freedom fighters <I>everywhere</I>.</div> <div> A very vertical and horizontal piece, one would presume that there is not much movement to the piece. However we see a quiet, determined plodding on, and the horses and riders seem to be moving, even while on the edge of death. From different angles, however, the horse's necks crane in every direction, seemingly seeking something out - perhaps food… rest… death?</div> <div> The horses are at eye-level, with such forlorn faces that you wish to reach out and try to comfort them.  Gaunt and starving, you feel sorrow as their necks crane, reaching out to pick fruit from barren and nonexistent branches with the overwhelming feeling of hopelessness.</div> <div> Manes and tales hang limply, while open mouths gasp for air, or fruitlessly attempt to cry out. Overexerted, nostrils flaring, and eye sockets empty and hollow, these horses are a frightening site.  The spindly legs and pole-arms jutting straight up vaguely remind one of the forests where these fighters would hide. The rough blackened aluminum could also remind someone of the harsh elements that would attack these vagabonds, such as rain, mud, snow and ice.</div> <div> Looking up, one is dwarfed by the grim-reaper riders, sitting in their saddles with awkward rigidity. They have no eyes - just sunken holes in their faces, their gaze cast downward - in sleep, in weakness, in starvation, or in weariness. In most cases, they don't even hold on to their mount. Awkwardly upright, with slouching bent necks, it almost gives the impression that they are dead and strapped to their mounts and the pole-arms protruding from the side<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >. </FONT></div> <div> Each new viewing angle also takes on new meaning. Details are left obscured, and the entire work is left rough and implicative. From certain angles, the pole-arms even take on a new function - a noose around the necks of these insurgents, serving as a reminder of the cruel fate of any such rebel who is captured. The partisans' quest seems daunting, if not impossible, yet they still continue forward.</div> <div> Seeing this sculpture calls to mind the oppressive and often inhumane regimes that generate such opposition. It speaks of the many movements for freedom in the centuries since the word "partisan" was first used in Italy to describe volunteers and freedom fighters. And it reminds us of the passionate commitment of those who took to the mountains and forests during the Second World War. Unlike the quislings who did the Nazis' bidding, and the many who averted their eyes, these partisans had the nobility and the courage to resist. The sculpture evokes, too, the humane courage of the resistance movement in postwar Poland.</div> <div>       <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >We have soldiers across the seas trying to subdue partisans and citizens alike in the name of freedom, yet are constantly amazed at their resiliency and persistence. As this sculpture conveys, it is not easy to stop someone with a cause to fight for. They will find a way to trudge along and keep going.</FONT></div> <div> The overwhelming consensus of the day is that it is most certainly a “powerful” piece and its impact is meant to be controversial and shocking, often desirable elements of art.  Though these works have fans and foes to varying degrees, they are equally clear about the human toll of fighting for what one believes in - a message both timely and timeless<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000033" FACE="Arial" ><B><U>.</U></B></FONT></div> <div> The foes of the Sculpture, The Boston Art Commission felt it didn't fit in a park largely devoted to American historical figures, the parks department complained about working around it and police had to stop people from climbing on the sculpture during events.  Eugenie Beal, a board member of the Friends of the Public Garden, called the sculpture's removal "cause for celebration."</div> <div> "The Boston Common is the first park in the United States, and the monuments on it should have to do with America and its history," she said. "'Partisans' just isn't appropriate."</div> <div> But sculptor Pitynski, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., was outraged, and said no one had told him of the removal.</div> <div> "It was my statement from now and for the new generations to come, and they moved the statement out," he said. "I can see some people from the Boston administration maybe hate this statement and hate art."</div> <div> The sculpture's owner, The Sculpture Foundation, said members of the local Polish community are looking for an alternate location in the city.</div> <div> "They want it to stay in Boston," Paula Stoeke, director and curator of the foundation, which has offices in Hamilton, N.J., and Santa Monica, Calif.</div> <div> Jack Kowalski, an activist who helped bring the sculpture to Boston, said Boston was the ideal location for "Partisans" because "there the Americans started the first fight against the English oppression."</div> <div> "It's not like the Polish-Americans have a lot of sculpture pieces or representation in art around the city, so what little we do have has been kind of removed, and it's not emotionally easy to understand," Kowalski said.</div> <div> In June, the Boston Art Commission voted to remove the work from Boston Common. Last Thursday, it was hauled to a storage facility in South Boston.</div> <div> Sarah Hutt, director of the art commission, said the city had long made it clear to The Sculpture Foundation that the sculpture was unwelcome on the common. She said she doesn't know why the foundation didn't take it back.</div> <div>      The Boston Polish Community is outraged at not being informed until a front page article appeared in the Boston Globe on January 18, 2006.  The article has appeared in other newspapers throughout the country.  Unfortunately many Poles did not know that the sculpture was related to a Polish artist.  The Polish American Congress of Eastern Massachusetts along with other leaders of the Boston Polish Community have formed a committee to ensure a proper location be found and possibly to have a plaque identifying the structure.  Also State Commander, Polish Legion of American Veterans, Darrin Potoski has written letters to politicians and coordinated his efforts with other veteran organizations.  Polonia will act once again like Polish partisans to ensure the message of Pitynski's “Partisan” Sculpture be retained in Boston where the American Revolution began.   On 01/27/2006, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority General Manager Daniel Grabauskas said he's spoken to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino about finding a new home for Partisans. Grabauskas told The Boston Globe he hasn't chosen a location for the sculpture, though he's leaning toward Courthouse Station, on the new<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT>Silver Line near the South Boston waterfront.<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT>  Will this resolve this issue or can a better site be negotiated?</div> <div> Reference <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.fifedrum.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.fifedrum.org"><U>www.fifedrum.org</U></A></FONT> </div> <bR> <bR> <div> LTC Stanley Dzierzeski USAR Ret</div> <div> Polish American Veterans</div> <div>  </div> <div>                </div> <div>                     <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" ><IMG SRC="07ee0be0.jpg" border=0 width="1248" height="702" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></FONT></div> <div> The"Partisans sculpture in Boston Common, most prominent park in Boston. (courtesy: Stanley Dzierzeski)</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><B><U> <A NAME="polish__partisans__find_a_new_home"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></U></B></I><I><B><U>Polish 'Partisans' find a new home</U></B></I></div> <bR> <div> Work will move to the waterfront</div> <div> By Ralph Ranalli</div> <div> Boston Globe</div> <div> March 29, 2006</div> <bR> <div> It was admired and praised, cursed and maligned, and after an uneasy</div> <div> 23 years among the American iconography of the Boston Common,</div> <div> disassembled and thrown into storage. Now, at last, officials say</div> <div> they have given ''Partisans" a home.</div> <bR> <div> The controversial sculpture of haggard horsemen, inspired by Polish</div> <div> freedom fighters, will be displayed near the new Institute of</div> <div> Contemporary Art on the South Boston Waterfront, officials said</div> <div> yesterday.</div> <bR> <div> Calling the sculpture ''one of the hallmark pieces of sculpture in</div> <div> this city," General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas of the Massachusetts</div> <div> Bay Transportation Authority said the new location on the plaza above</div> <div> the Silver Line's World Trade Center Station would be highly visible</div> <div> and a fitting spot.</div> <bR> <div> ''By working cooperatively with the City of Boston, the Polish-</div> <div> American community, and the artist, I'm convinced we have identified</div> <div> a superb site for this symbol of freedom," Grabauskas said.</div> <bR> <div> Everyone involved seemed relieved by the decision yesterday,</div> <div> including the sculpture's California-based owners and city officials,</div> <div> who had sweated letter campaigns and protests from crowds of angry</div> <div> Polish-Americans since its removal from the Common earlier this year.</div> <bR> <div> The artist, Andrew Pitynski of Brooklyn, N.Y., said, ''My heart is on</div> <div> Boston Common. The partisans were freedom fighters, and the Boston</div> <div> Common was the right place for them."</div> <bR> <div> But, he said, he feels ''very positive, very good, and very happy"</div> <div> that his work had found a place to be seen.</div> <bR> <div> The sculpture has had an unsettled history in Boston. Meant to depict</div> <div> the heavy price that must be paid for liberty, the commemoration of</div> <div> underground fighters who battled the Nazis, the Soviet Army, and then</div> <div> Polish Communists during and after World War II struck a chord with</div> <div> Polish-Americans and others in the city, who successfully lobbied to</div> <div> keep it on the Common for more than two decades, despite the fact</div> <div> that it was only supposed to be there a few months on temporary</div> <div> display.</div> <bR> <div> For years, however, historical purists and some Beacon Hill residents</div> <div> agitated for its removal, saying that the Common should be reserved</div> <div> for works that depicted Boston and American history.</div> <bR> <div> Its removal in January prompted a small furor, with nearly 150 Polish-</div> <div> Americans descending on City Hall Plaza a short time later, waving</div> <div> red and white Polish flags and shouting their outrage at the Menino</div> <div> administration.</div> <bR> <div> MBTA officials stepped in shortly after the city removed the</div> <div> sculpture, saying they would find a home for it, possibly at a subway</div> <div> station.</div> <bR> <div> Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday that the new location is ''a</div> <div> growing area of the city where [the statue] can still be enjoyed."</div> <bR> <div> The owners of the statue, the nonprofit Sculpture Foundation,</div> <div> yesterday praised the decision by the MBTA to adopt the ''Partisans."</div> <bR> <div> ''We are grateful to everyone who has participated in this project,</div> <div> especially to the Polish community of Boston for their support of</div> <div> artist Andrew Pitynski and his work," said Sculpture Foundation</div> <div> director Paula Stoeke.</div> <bR> <div> The extended loan contract between the Sculpture Foundation and the</div> <div> MBTA will probably be for a period of three years, renewable by</div> <div> mutual consent.</div> <bR> <div> Honorary Consul Marek Lesniewski-Laas of the Polish Consulate in</div> <div> Boston said the monument reflects the history of Polish-Americans,</div> <div> some 300,000 of whom reside in the Commonwealth.</div> <bR> <div> ''We are heartened and persuaded that the MBTA will be a good host to</div> <div> the 'Partisans' and that it will effectively promote the visibility</div> <div> of the monument," he said.</div> <bR> <div> Pitynski said yesterday that he plans to travel to Boston to help</div> <div> with the reinstallation of the structure and for its rededication. He</div> <div> said he has seen the site, with its panoramic water views of Boston</div> <div> Harbor, and loves it.</div> <bR> <div> But it still rankles him that his work's Beacon Hill detractors won</div> <div> the battle of Boston Common, he said.</div> <bR> <div> ''Look, I am American; I am the same kind of American as these snobs</div> <div> from the Boston Common," he said.</div> <bR> <div> ''I am a better American, because I have a better appreciation for</div> <div> freedom."</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>