Jakub Banasiak’s book is about the transformation of the state art system at the close of the Polish People’s Republic era. Going beyond established narratives concerning the art culture of the 1980s, which depicted art mainly through the lens of the resistance to the communist regime, the author creates a broader and more nuanced portrait of that period, including not only the political but also social, institutional and economic context of the artistic life at the time, as well as systemic transformations it was undergoing. By examining the functioning of the state art system in the “protean times” of transformations—in the period when the country was slowly recovering from communism—the author redefines previously applied turning points, as well as relationships between state cultural policy, cultural institutions, nascent private art market and the artistic underground. On the basis of a broad archival research he showcases the complexity of realities at the closing of People’s Poland, highlighting two particular moments: the significance of the liberalisation of the system after 1986, and the processual nature of systemic changes reaching into the early 1990s. I believe Jakub Banasiak’s work will constitute a solid research foundation for every academic researching Polish art in the final decades of the 20th century. Prof. Piotr Juszkiewicz