Henryk Stażewski
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Henryk Stażewski (pronounced: ; 9 January 1894 – 10 June 1988) was a Polish
painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
,
writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, pla ...
, and visual artist. Stażewski's career spanned seven decades and he is considered a pivotal figure in the history of
constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
and
geometric abstraction Geometric abstraction is a form of abstract art based on the use of geometric forms sometimes, though not always, placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective (non-representational) compositions. Although the genre was pop ...
in Poland. He was one of the few prominent Polish avant-garde artists of the interwar period who had remained active and influential in the second half of the 20th century. Stażewski rose to prominence as a co-founder of '' Blok'', '' Praesens'', and ''
a.r. group The a.r. group ("revolutionary artists" or "real avant-garde") was an avant-garde art group set up by Władysław Strzemiński, Katarzyna Kobro, and Henryk Stażewski in 1929, who had previously been members of Blok and Praesens. Rather than creat ...
'', three interwar
artist collectives An artist collective is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management, towards shared aims. The aims of an artist collective can include almost anything that is relevant to the needs ...
which spearheaded the development of Polish Constructivist art. During the 1920s and 1930s, he traveled extensively and became acquainted with other European avant-garde artists, including
Kazimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych ...
,
El Lissitzky Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...
,
Theo van Doesburg Theo van Doesburg (, 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch artist, who practiced painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. He was married to artist, pianist and choreographer Nel ...
,
Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being o ...
, and
Albert Gleizes Albert Gleizes (; 8 December 1881 – 23 June 1953) was a French artist, theoretician, philosopher, a self-proclaimed founder of Cubism and an influence on the School of Paris. Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger wrote the first major treatise o ...
. In 1939, Stażewski's career was hindered by the outbreak of World War II and most of his work was destroyed during the
Nazi occupation of Poland Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Naz ...
. After the end of the war in 1945, he returned to painting but was faced with the imposition of
Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the the ...
and
Socialist Realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...
. Following the cultural and political Thaw of 1956, Stażewski began working on abstract
relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
compositions, a medium that would preoccupy the artist in the following decades and become his most recognized body of work. First exhibited in 1959, Stażewski's reliefs deployed diverse media and harnessed various non-objective vocabularies inspired by his interwar investigations into geometric abstraction. In 1966, Stażewski initiated a years-long collaboration with the non-commercial gallery space Galeria Foksal in Warsaw, an artist-centered
exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...
venue which played a critical role in the development of the Polish post-war avant-garde. Working alongside
Tadeusz Kantor Tadeusz Kantor (6 April 1915 – 8 December 1990) was a Polish painter, assemblage and Happenings artist, set designer and theatre director. Kantor is renowned for his revolutionary theatrical performances in Poland and abroad. Laureate of ...
, Edward Krasinski,
Annette Messager Annette Messager (born 30 November 1943) is a French visual artist. In 2005 she won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale for her artwork at the French Pavilion. In 2016, she won the prestigious Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award. ...
and other contemporary artists who exhibited at Foksal, Stażewski had positioned himself as a leading Polish abstractionist of the 1970s and 1980s. Henryk Stażewski's works are included in permanent collections of museums in Europe and the United States. For his contributions to Central and Eastern European culture, the artist was awarded the 1972
Herder Prize The Herder Prize (german: Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis), named after the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), was a prestigious international prize awarded every year from 1964 to 2006 to scholars and artists from Central and Sou ...
.


Early life and work


Early work and education

Henryk Stażewski was born in
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...
on January 9, 1894, then part of the
Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to: Historical political entities * Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom existing from 1025 to 1031 * Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom exi ...
, a semi-autonomous state under the political control of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
. Stażewski was one of the four children of Leonard Rafał Stażewski, the owner of a small foundry located on Wspólna Street in central Warsaw, and Michalina (
née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...
Skibicka). He enrolled at the
Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw ( pl, Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie) is a public university of visual arts and applied arts located in the Polish capital. The Academy traces its history back to the Department of Arts founded at the Warsaw U ...
in 1913, where he studied under
Stanisław Lentz Stanisław Lentz (April 23, 1861 – October 19, 1920) was a Polish painter, portraitist, illustrator, and a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw from 1909. Biography Stanisław Lentz was born in Warsaw, Poland, and studied at the Kra ...
. A surviving series of figurative
watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...
paintings from 1915—including
nudes Nudes most commonly refers to depictions of unclothed people, see Nude (art) and Nude photography. It may also refer to: * Skin or flesh coloured pantyhose, mostly used in films or modeling * ''Nudes'', a 2002 album by Nathan Moor (American music ...
,
portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...
, and
landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the p ...
—reveals the influence of
Impressionist art Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
in Stażewski's early work. Stażewski graduated from the Academy in 1919, a year after Poland had regained its independence. His paintings at the time were inspired by Formizm, a Polish
avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
group that drew on
Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
,
Futurism Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an Art movement, artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, an ...
, and Expressionism and argued against naturalistic representation. In 1921, Stażewski participated in ''Wystawa Formistów'' (''The'' ''Formist Exhibition'') at the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Warsaw and later that year, he showed his work— together with several early compositions by a fellow Polish painter
Mieczysław Szczuka Mieczysław Szczuka (19 October 1898 – 13 August 1927) was a Polish avant-garde artist and mountaineer. Szczuka was born in Warsaw, Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland) and studied painting in 1915–1918 at the Academy of Fine Art ...
—at the Polish Artists' Club in Warsaw. In 1922, Stażewski was included in the ''Trzecia Wystawa Grupy Formistów F9'' (''The Third Formist Exhibition F9'') in Warsaw and a year later, in the ''Exhibition of New Art'' in
Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...
and the ''International Exhibition of New Art'' in
Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of cant ...
.


Polish Constructivism (1924-1930s)

The Vilnius exhibition in 1923, which included works by avant-garde artists from across Eastern Europe and Russia, has been credited with introducing constructivist tendencies to Polish art. Among the participating artists who would have a significant impact on Stażewski's approach to artistic production was
Władysław Strzemiński Władysław Strzemiński (21 November 1893 – 26 December 1952) was a Polish avant-garde painter of international renown. Life and work Strzemiński was born in Minsk to an ethnic Polish family. In 1914, he graduated from the Military School of ...
, who had previously studied at two Moscow Constructivist collectives, INKhUK and Vkhutemas. In Moscow, Strzemiński had investigated various ways in which art could be harnessed to construct a new,
socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
society in the aftermath of World War I, recognizing the role of an artist as that of an engineer as well as a scientist aiding in the process of social transformation. For Stażewski, the connection between art and science was especially crucial and he argued that "a painting's systematic quality connected it to contemporary civilization in a unilateral action--from science and machines to works of art." Through analyzing "the constituent parts of their painting: space,
faktura The term of faktura (russian: фактура) emerged in Russian art criticism before the First World War. David Burliuk used the term as a Russian equivalent of the French word "facture" which refers to the texture of the painted surface. Voldem ...
, line, and color," the Constructivist artists were not completely beholden to the notions of intuition or talent, imbuing the process of art making with a sense of objectivity and collective labor. Shortly after the Vilnius exhibition, together with Strzemiński and his wife
Katarzyna Kobro Katarzyna Kobro (26 January 1898 – 21 February 1951) was a Polish avant-garde sculptor and a prominent representative of the Constructivist movement in Poland. A pioneer of innovative multi-dimensional abstract sculpture, she rejected Ae ...
among other artists, Stażewski co-founded '' Blok, or the Blok Group of Cubists Constructivists, and Suprematists'' (''Grupa Kubistow, Konstruktywistow i Suprematystow Blok'') (1924-1926), the first Polish Constructivist collective focused on gathering like-minded artists, designers, architects, and theorists to help improve the lives of ordinary citizens. Inspired by
leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soc ...
politics, Polish Constructivists had sought to use abstraction—applied to
functional architecture In architecture, functionalism is the principle that buildings should be designed based solely on their purpose and function. This principle is a matter of confusion and controversy within the profession, particularly in regard to modern archite ...
,
furniture design Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). ...
,
typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...
or graphic design—as a radical tool to foster social and political transformation, thus bringing art into the service of the people. In a text from 1924, Stażewski emphasized the important role that abstraction plays in constructing a new, modern society: In 1926, ''Blok'' dissolved due to internal conflicts and was followed by '' Praesens'' (1926-1929), and later ''
a.r. group The a.r. group ("revolutionary artists" or "real avant-garde") was an avant-garde art group set up by Władysław Strzemiński, Katarzyna Kobro, and Henryk Stażewski in 1929, who had previously been members of Blok and Praesens. Rather than creat ...
'' (1929-1936), all three of which were critical in defining Polish Constructivism as a movement. As a member of these avant-garde groups, Stażewski made contributions to Polish Constructivism through typography,
poster design A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...
, theoretical writings (including publications for the ''Blok'' magazine published between 1923 and 1926), as well as interior design and furniture design. At ''Blok'', Stażewski had also collaborated with
Henryk Berlewi Henryk Berlewi ( Yiddish: הענריק בערלעװי; October 20, 1894 – August 2, 1967) was a Polish-French painter, graphic designer and art theorist, who is primarily remembered as an abstract artist who paved the way for optical art, but h ...
and Szczuka who were considered leading figures in Polish avant-garde typography. Though predominantly idealistic and limited in their actual impact on the Polish post-World War I society, the Constructivists managed to complete some important architectural projects (''Praesens'', for instance, participated in the design of apartment buildings for the Warsaw Housing Cooperative in the Rakowiec district) and induced the Polish avant-garde, up until then largely autonomous, with a sense of social commitment. In March 1927, Stażewski was among several Polish artists hosting
Kazimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych ...
during his trip to Warsaw. He helped organize Malevich's exhibition at
Hotel Polonia Palace The Polonia Palace Hotel is a historic Hotel rating, four-star hotel opened in 1913 and located in the heart of Warsaw on Jerusalem Avenue. It is the capital’s second oldest hotel after the Hotel Bristol, Warsaw. Together with the adjacent Metrop ...
—first outside of the Soviet Union—and invited the artist to visit his studio. Malevich's
Suprematism Suprematism (russian: Супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstra ...
had served as a crucial point of reference for Russian Constructivists and avant-garde artists across Central and Eastern Europe; he is said to have made a lasting impact on Stażewski in particular, who examined some of the key ideas of Suprematism regarding the autonomy of art and the superiority of non-objective visual forms in regard to his own work.


Relationships with European Avant-gardes

While working with Constructivist groups in his home country, Stażewski traveled frequently and participated in several international exhibitions throughout the 1920s, including the 1926 ''Paris Exhibition of Theatrical Art'' and the ''Machine Age Exposition'' in New York in 1927. He had also developed and cultivated relationships with representatives of Western European avant-garde groups, including
Theo van Doesburg Theo van Doesburg (, 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch artist, who practiced painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. He was married to artist, pianist and choreographer Nel ...
and
Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being o ...
of the Dutch
De Stijl ''De Stijl'' (; ), Dutch for "The Style", also known as Neoplasticism, was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 in Leiden. De Stijl consisted of artists and architects. In a more narrow sense, the term ''De Stijl'' is used to refer to a bod ...
movement, as well as the French painter
Albert Gleizes Albert Gleizes (; 8 December 1881 – 23 June 1953) was a French artist, theoretician, philosopher, a self-proclaimed founder of Cubism and an influence on the School of Paris. Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger wrote the first major treatise o ...
. The influence of De Stijl can be found in Stażewski's work from around that time, including
oil paintings Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest ...
titled ''Kompozycja'' (c. 1929-1930) and ''Kompozycja Fakturowa'' (''Textural Composition'') from 1931, which rely on interlocking vertical and horizontal shapes to form a geometrical grid. In 1929, Stażewski became a member of the ''
Cercle et Carré Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square) was a group of abstract artists in Paris, founded 1929 by Joaquín Torres García and Michel Seuphor. The group published a journal with the same name. In 1930 they organised an exhibition in Paris showing 130 ...
'' and, in 1931, joined ''
Abstraction-Création Abstraction-Création was a loose association of artists formed in Paris in 1931 to counteract the influence of the Surrealist group led by André Breton. Founders Theo van Doesburg, Auguste Herbin, Jean Hélion and Georges Vantongerloo started t ...
'', two Paris-based groups gathering international abstract painters. Also in 1931, Stażewski, as member of the ''a.r. group'', co-organized the International Collection of Modern Art in
Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź Muzeum () is a Prague Metro station providing the interchange between Lines A and C, and serving the National Museum. It is located at the top end of Wenceslas Square. The Line C station was opened on 9 May 1974, with the first section of P ...
. Spearheaded by Strzemiński, the collection included works by key modern artists from across Europe, including
Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually modified into a more figurative, po ...
,
Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism ...
,
Hans Arp Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known as Jean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter, and poet. He was known as a Dadaist and an abstract artist. Early life Arp was born in Straßburg (now Str ...
and
Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, poetry, sound, pain ...
, and opened to the public on 15 February 1931. By the second half of the 1930s, Stażewski had returned to representational art while still exhibiting abstract paintings and graphic design in Poland and Europe. He also supported himself financially through portrait commissions. During Hitler's
invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...
in early September 1939, the building which housed Stażewski's studio in Warsaw was bombed, destroying most of his work. Stażewski remained in Poland and lived under Nazi occupation between 1939 and 1945, first in
Szczekociny Szczekociny () is a town on the Pilica river, in Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland, with 3,612 inhabitants (2019). Even though Szczekociny administratively belongs to the Silesian Voivodeship, it is part of historic region of Lesser Po ...
(1943) and later in Radość (1945), having mostly abandoned artistic production during that period, except for several
caricatures A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...
and landscapes, virtually none of which have survived till this day.


Post-war career


Stalinist Poland (1948-1956)

In 1945, shortly after the war had ended, Stażewski moved to Warsaw and was hired as the head of the art studio at the Military Geographical Institute. He occupied an apartment on Piękna Street together with artists Jan Rogoyski and Maria Ewa Łunkiewicz-Rogoyska, a space that would become a nexus of Warsaw avant-garde artists and intellectuals in the following years. During the early post-war era, he returned to painting and experimented with various modernist styles, including biomorphic abstraction and semi-figurative compositions inspired by
Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
(evident, for instance, in the 1947 painting titled ''Escape''). In 1947, as a result of rigged legislative election, the hardline Stalinist
Bolesław Bierut Bolesław Bierut (; 18 April 1892 – 12 March 1956) was a Polish communist activist and politician, leader of the Polish People's Republic from 1947 until 1956. He was President of the State National Council from 1944 to 1947, President of Pola ...
became President of Poland. Following the Unification Congress of the
Polish Workers' Party The Polish Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Partia Robotnicza, PPR) was a communist party in Poland from 1942 to 1948. It was founded as a reconstitution of the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) and merged with the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) in 1 ...
and
Polish Socialist Party The Polish Socialist Party ( pl, Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS) is a socialist political party in Poland. It was one of the most important parties in Poland from its inception in 1892 until its merger with the communist Polish Workers' ...
in December 1948, Poland was turned into a
satellite state A satellite state or dependent state is a country that is formally independent in the world, but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country. The term was coined by analogy to planetary objects orbitin ...
of the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. Earlier that year, Stażewski had co-designed decorative glass panels for the large-scale ''Wystawa Ziemi Odzyskanych'' (''Exhibition of Recovered Territories'') held in the city of
Wrocław Wrocław (; , . german: Breslau, , also known by other names) is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, roughly ...
between July and October 1948. A sweeping state-organized display devoted to Ziemie Odzyskane (
Recovered Territories The Recovered Territories or Regained Lands ( pl, Ziemie Odzyskane), also known as Western Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Zachodnie), and previously as Western and Northern Territories ( pl, Ziemie Zachodnie i Północne), Postulated Territories ( pl, Z ...
), the exhibition celebrated large areas of western and northern Poland that had been
annexed Annexation (Latin ''ad'', to, and ''nexus'', joining), in international law, is the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. It is generally held to be an illegal act ...
from Germany in the aftermath of World War II and which had become a centerpiece of the early Stalinist propaganda. Although fired from his position at the Institute in 1949, Stażewski was able to carefully navigate the new socio-political ecosystem, avoiding the fate of his fellow avant-garde collaborators, Strzemiński and Kobro, who had been accused of reactionary cultural activities and whose careers had been effectively destroyed by the emergent Stalinist regime. Soon, Stażewski turned to
Socialist Realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...
—a figurative art doctrine reliant on idealized depictions of life under socialism—that had been officially imposed by the communist regime in 1949. However, he had never fully committed to the naturalistic
academicism Academic art, or academicism or academism, is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie d ...
expected of Soviet and Soviet-aligned artists. In 1950, Stażewski was named a member of the selection committee for the ''I Ogólnopolska wystawa plastyki'' (''First Nationwide Display of Plastic Arts''), the inaugural exhibition of Polish Socialist Realism organized at the
National Museum in Warsaw The National Museum in Warsaw ( pl, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie), popularly abbreviated as MNW, is a national museum in Warsaw, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in the capital. It comprises a rich collection of ancient art ( Eg ...
. Between 1950 and 1952, he completed multiple figurative paintings to align himself with the demands of the state. Among Stażewski's surviving Socialist Realist works is an oil painting titled ''Na scalonych ziemiach'' (''On the Recovered Territories'') completed in 1950, in which a tractor driver is seen traversing the eponymous reclaimed land. While taking on various part-time projects working for the government, which included retouching official portraits of party members at the , Stażewski continued to organize regular clandestine gatherings for like-minded artists in his Warsaw apartment and wrote (at that time unpublished) texts about abstraction. The death of Stalin in 1953 and the subsequent political Thaw of 1956 precipitated the return of avant-garde art. While Poland had become one of the first countries among the Soviet satellite states to embrace the Thaw, the cultural shift was a gradual process. Toward the end of the Stalinist regime, he and Łunkiewicz-Rogoyska were commissioned to paint a worker-themed realistic
mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...
at the new headquarters of state-controlled Metalexport company in Warsaw, which opened in 1954. In recognition for his artistic contributions to the Polish People's Republic, Stażewski received a
Gold Cross of Merit The Cross of Merit () is a Polish civil state decoration established on 23 June 1923, to recognize services to the state. History At the time of its establishment in 1923, the Cross of Merit was the highest civilian award in Poland. It was awa ...
in 1955.


Reliefs (1956-1970s)

In 1955, Stażewski became a member of
Klub Krzywego Koła The Crooked Circle Club ( pl, Klub Krzywego Koła) was a discussion club for young intelligentsia in Poland. It was founded in 1955, the first meeting taking place in an apartment on Crooked Circle Street in Warsaw. It had connections with the '' ...
(Crooked Circle Club) in Warsaw, an independent cultural initiative for avant-garde artists, writers, and intellectuals. In 1956, Bierut died and
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev ...
, the
First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
and the ''de facto'' leader of the USSR who had succeeded Stalin, delivered a speech titled "
On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...
" which disavowed Stalinism and officially ushered in the political Thaw. That year, Stażewski joined the newly opened gallery space of the Crooked Circle Club where
Jerzy Nowosielski Jerzy Nowosielski (January 7, 1923 – February 21, 2011) was a Kraków-born Polish painter, graphic artist, scenographer, and illustrator. He was well known for his religious compositions (wall paintings, iconostases, polychromies) in the ...
,
Alina Szapocznikow Alina Szapocznikow (; May 16, 1926 – March 2, 1973) was a Polish sculptor and Holocaust survivor. She produced casts of her and her son's body. She worked mainly in bronze and stone and her provocative work recalled genres such as surrealism, nou ...
,
Urszula Broll Urszula Eugenia Broll-Urbanowicz (17 March 1930 in Katowice – 17 February 2020 in Przesieka) was a Polish painter, animator of underground culture, Buddhist, co-founder of the St-53 Group (1953–56), member of esoteric circle Oneiron (1965-19 ...
,
Stefan Gierowski Stefan Gierowski (21 May 1925 – 14 August 2022) was a Polish painter and an avant garde artist of post-war Poland. For many years he was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw where he earned numerous distinctions. He abandoned rep ...
and other contemporary painters would also exhibit their work. In around 1956, Stażewski began exploring the
relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
form as his medium. Using a variety of unorthodox materials that included plywood,
plexiglass Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acryli ...
, cardboard, Masonite board and
copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...
, the artist deployed diverse non-representational forms to construct three-dimensional reliefs on a horizontal pictorial surface. Stażewski's reliefs broke away from the traditional pictorial flatness and underscored the artist's interest in the tactile qualities of used materials, forging a new theoretical space with which to articulate color. Moreover, the artist's emphasis on tactility and materiality recalls the Russian Constructivist engagement with
faktura The term of faktura (russian: фактура) emerged in Russian art criticism before the First World War. David Burliuk used the term as a Russian equivalent of the French word "facture" which refers to the texture of the painted surface. Voldem ...
, an intention to accentuate the work's physical qualities as a way to challenge traditional
illusionism Illusionism in art history means either the artistic tradition in which artists create a work of art that appears to share the physical space with the viewer"Illusionism," ''Grove Art Online''. Oxford University Press, ccessed 17 March 2008 or ...
in painting. In 1959, Stażewski exhibited the reliefs for the first time during a solo show at Kordegarda Gallery in Warsaw. The exhibition space consisted of large, protruding panels designed by the Polish
scenographer A scenographer or production designer, develops the appearance of a stage design, a TV or movie set, a gaming environment, a trade fair exhibition design or a museum experience exhibition design. The term originated in theater. A scenographer work ...
and architect
Stanisław Zamecznik Stanisław Zamecznik (10 March 1909 – 2 May 1971) was a Polish graphic artist, poster artist, scenographer and architect. Zamecznik was a professor of State Higher School of Fine Arts, Poznań (now Academy of Fine Arts). He was a cousin of ...
, contributing to what Stażewski called "relative movement," or an intention to increase the physical depth of the relief space to create a more immersive environment for the viewer. Well received by contemporary critics, the Kordegarda show helped to re-position Stażewski as a leading figure in the Polish contemporary art scene. According to art historian Marek Bartelik, Henryk Stażewski's commitment to abstraction in the post-war era speaks "to the persistence of the utopian belief in the transcendent power of abstraction: as a form of absolute universal expression." The artist's inspirations during that time were manifold and art historian notes that Stażewski "did not succumb to any stylistic categories." At the same time, scholar Christina Lodder points to the continued relevance of Russian avant-garde art, including that of Malevich, whose ''Suprematist Composition: Aeroplane Flying'' from 1915 Stażewski had reproduced in 1962. File:Stazewski Grey White Relief 2 1962.jpeg, ''White Grey Relief 2'', 1962, in 1961, Stażewski began a series of White Reliefs which were later exhibited at Galeria Kordegarda in Warsaw (private collection) File:Stazewski White on White No. 25 1963.jpg, ''White on White No. 25'', 1963 in which the artist created a monochromatic textural composition used oil paint and wood, recalling Constructivist engagement with faktura (
Buffalo AKG Art Museum The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum at 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, in Delaware Park. the museum's Elmwood Avenue campus is temporarily closed for construction. It hosted e ...
) File:Stazewski Untitled 1966.jpg, ''Untitled'', 1966, aluminum, in 1964, Stażewski began making reliefs using copper and aluminum that highlighted the intrinsic visual properties of metal (private collection) File:Stazewski Relief 18 1967.jpeg, ''Relief nr. 18'', 1967, Stażewski experimented with diverse mediums in his relief compositions. Here, the artist used acrylic and gloss paint on metal sheets, which were then attached to
fiberboard Fiberboard (American English) or fibreboard (British English) is a type of engineered wood product that is made out of wood fibers. Types of fiberboard (in order of increasing density) include particle board or low-density fiberboard (LDF), ...
and wooden support (private collection) File:Stazewski Relief nr 38 1969.jpg, ''Relief nr. 38'', 1969 illustrates Stażewski's continued reliance on simple geometric shapes to formulate the visual vocabulary of his polychromatic reliefs (private collection)
Between 1960 and 1962, Stażewski held three exhibitions at the Crooked Circle Gallery in Warsaw and continued to showcase his relief work, including a series of ''White Reliefs'' made in 1961. In August 1961, several of Stażewski's reliefs were included in ''Fifteen Polish Painters'', a major exhibition of Polish contemporary art at the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
in New York, alongside works by Wojciech Fangor,
Tadeusz Kantor Tadeusz Kantor (6 April 1915 – 8 December 1990) was a Polish painter, assemblage and Happenings artist, set designer and theatre director. Kantor is renowned for his revolutionary theatrical performances in Poland and abroad. Laureate of ...
, and Jan Lebenstein, among others. Focused almost exclusively on non-representational art and organized by a major U.S. institution, the show championed abstraction as a symbolic manifestation of Poland's cultural and political freedom during the Cold War era. Also in 1961, Art dealer, art dealers Madeleine Chalette-Lejwa and Arthur Lejwa, the founders of Galerie Chalette in New York, featured Stażewski's work in a small group exhibition, offering him an early exposure to the American market. By the mid-1960s, Stażewski had begun using aluminum and copper for his relief work, shunning painted material in favor of the intrinsic color properties of metal. According to art historians Maja and Reuben Fowkes, Maja and Reuben Fawkes, the reliefs made of metal simulate "the effect of depth by rhythmically layering shapes and optical effects on the surface, exchanging visual determinism for the randomness of reflected light." In 1964, Kazimir Karpuszko, a Polish ex-pat art dealer, organized a show of Stażewski's work at Chicago's Contemporary Art Gallery, the artist's first solo exhibition in the United States and an opportunity to introduce his reliefs to the wider American public. In subsequent years, Stażewski's work was also shown at Marlborough-Gerson Gallery and Sidney Janis, Sidney Janis Gallery in New York. In Poland, several of Stażewski's works, including a large-scale geometrical metal sculpture modeled after one his abstract reliefs, were included in the ' (''First Biennial of Spatial Forms'' ''in Elbląg'') in 1965. By 1968, Stażewski had returned to polychromatic relief compositions, often made with wood on Masonite board and painted over with Acrylic paint, acrylic, frequently juxtaposing simple geometrical figures in contrasting colors to achieve a sense of visually dynamic arrangement. Referring to his sustained engagement with color during a 1968 interview, the artist said: "I gradually move from cold to warm colors according to their wavelengths, from pure to grey, from light to dark, using vertical and horizontal combinations. This gives me an infinite number of variants."


Later career (1966-1988)

In 1966, Stażewski was one of the artists representing Poland at the 33rd Venice Biennale, XXXIII Venice Biennale, where his relief works received an honorable mention. Throughout the 1960s, Stażewski collaborated regularly with contemporary galleries in and outside of Poland. Key among them was his long-standing collaboration with Foksal Gallery, which he co-founded in 1966, a non-commercial art space in Warsaw that would play a key role in the development of Polish post-war avant-garde. Unlike traditional exhibition venues, Foksal revolved around robust collaboration between participating artists and was supposed to present displays that "problematized the artistic process itself" while keeping an "apparent distance from governmental endeavors to instrumentalize art," even though the gallery was publicly funded. Stażewski thus had an opportunity to exhibit reliefs in a more experimental and experiential space. At Foksal, Stażewski facilitated connections with international artists. Throughout the 1970s, he worked alongside Włodzimierz Borowski, Tadeusz Kantor, Allan Kaprow (exhibited at Foksal in 1976), Christian Boltanski (1978), and Annette Messager, Anette Messager (1978), among others. Outside of Foksal, he acquainted the French conceptual artist and art theorist Daniel Buren. Stażewski and Buren would later collaborate on a project at Galerie 1-36, an experimental gallery space active in Paris between 1972 and 1976. He also developed a close artistic relationship with Edward Krasiński. He and Krasiński shared a studio-apartment at Aleja Solidarnosci in Warsaw from 1970 until Stażewski's death in 1988. The space, which had served as a salon for Polish artists and intellectuals throughout the remaining three decades of the communist rule in Poland, was later renamed the (Avant-garde Institute) and opened to the public in 2007. Stażewski experimented with color and geometry in diverse visual and aesthetic registers until late in his career. In 1970, he participated in the art symposium ''Wrocław 70'' where he showcased ''Infinite Vertical Composition'' ''(9 Rays of Light in the Sky)'', an artwork made of colorful beams of light projected onto the night sky that released color from its previous pictorial confines. In 1972, the Dallas Museum of Art included Stażewski in ''Geometric Abstraction, 1916-1942'', a survey show of geometric abstract art in the first four decades of the 20th century. In 1976, he was featured in ''Constructivism in Poland, 1923-1936: Blok, Praesens, a.r.'', an exhibition devoted to the history of Polish Constructivism organized at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which traveled the same year to the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, and the Art Institute of Chicago. That year, the artist was awarded the
Herder Prize The Herder Prize (german: Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis), named after the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), was a prestigious international prize awarded every year from 1964 to 2006 to scholars and artists from Central and Sou ...
for his contributions to the visual culture of Central and Eastern Europe. Later in the 1970s, Stażewski began exploring the visual properties of line. His paintings and drawings from that period show an investigation into the possibilities afforded by line, including the monochromatic grid. Geometry remained a critical reference point for the artist and he considered it an "innate measure in the eye of every man, allowing him to grasp relations and proportions." Over the next decade, Stażewski also continued to revitalize some of the visual forms present in his early tactile reliefs by moving back them onto a flat painterly surface. While his later compositions had become more intuitive, standing in contrast to the more scientifically determined compositional methods, the artist remained committed to examining the pictorial properties of color. Scholar Janina Ladnowska described Stażewski's planes of color as "flat, strong, homogeneous, clean, sometimes shining" and suggested that these polychromatic compositions made late in the artist's career cast doubt on the "rational" structures of his earlier work. He continued to exhibit domestically and abroad throughout the 1980s, having participated in solo and group shows at Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden, Monumentum Fine Arts in Minneapolis, as well as Centre Pompidou and Galerie Denise René in Paris. Henryk Stażewski died in Warsaw on 10 June 1988 aged 94. His funeral was held on 17 June and the artist was interred at the Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw.


Legacy

Owing to his long-standing career, Stażewski has had an important influence on the history of Polish modern and contemporary art. He has been called a "pioneer the classical avant-garde of the 20s and 30s" and described as "one of the most important" Polish artists to link the "pre-war and post-war Avant-garde tendencies." Stażewski's work is said to have "paved the way for the revitalization of geometric art" and has served as a source of inspiration for the younger generation of Polish postwar artists. Magdalena Abakanowicz, for instance, closely modeled her early textile works on Stażewski's reliefs and relied on the artist's use of "contrast as an organising principle". In 1990, an exhibition of Henryk Stażewski's abstract compositions at Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno in Las Palmas recognized him as the Polish pioneer of concrete art, originally an offshoot of Neoplasticism initiated in 1930 by Theo van Doesburg which later gained popularity in Latin America during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1994, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Stażewski's birth, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź organized a major posthumous retrospective devoted to his oeuvre. In his review of the exhibition, critic and art historian Marek Bartelik wrote that for the numerous Polish admirers of the artist "his uncompromising stance serves today as a confirmation of their belief in the infinite depth and superiority of geometric abstraction." In 2009, Daniel Buren, with whom Stażewski had collaborated during the 1970s, designed a dedicated temporary display space for several of Stażewski's reliefs at the Muzeum Sztuki titled ''Daniel Buren / Hommage à Henryk Stazewski. Cabane éclatée avec tissu blanc et noir, travail situé, 1985-2009'' and installed as an Homage (arts), homage to the late artist. More recently, Stażewski's ''Colored Relief'' (1963) was featured in ''Transmissions: Art in Eastern Europe and Latin America, 1960–1980'', a comprehensive 2015 survey exhibition organized at the Museum of Modern Art in New York that examined parallels between art in Eastern Europe and Latin America during the 1960s and 1970s.


Collections

Stażewski's works are included in permanent collections of museums in Europe and the United States, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, Buffalo AKG Art Museum (formerly known as Albright–Knox Art Gallery), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Zachęta, Zachęta, the National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Tate Modern in London. Several of Stażewski's geometric abstract paintings from the interwar period are on permanent display at the Neoplastic Room (Sala Neoplastyczna) at Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź. The design of the room, originally conceived by Władysław Strzemiński in 1948, was inspired by interactions of primary colors typical of De Stijl movement, complemented by black, white, and grey. The display was shut down by the communist regime in 1950 and reconstructed in 1960 based on the surviving photographs. The exhibition space was expanded in 2010 to include a wider display of interwar and contemporary art from the museum's collection.


Art market

In November 2022, Henryk Stażewski's ''Relief No. 8'' from 1969 was sold for €1.03 million at Sotheby's in Milan, among the highest prices paid at auction for a 20th-century Polish work of art.


Notes


Citations


Further reading

* ''Constructivism in Poland, 1923 to 1936'' (exh. cat., ed. H. Gresty and J. Lewinson; Cambridge, Kettle’s Yard; Łódź, Mus. A.; 1984) * Mansbach, Steven. ''Modern Art in Eastern Europe: From the Baltic to the Balkans, ca. 1890–1939'' (Cambridge, 1999) * ''Central European Avant-gardes: Exchange and Transformation, 1910–1930'' (exh. cat., ed. T. Benson; Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2002) * Piotrowski, Piotr. ''In the Shadow if Yalta: Art and the Avant-Garde in Eastern Europe, 1945–1989'' (London, 2009) * ''Henryk Stażewski: Dzieła z lat 1923–1980'' (exh. cat., ed. W. Smużny and J. Ładnowska; Toruń, Office A. Exh., 1980) * Turowski, Andrzej. ''Konstruktywizm polski: Próba rekonstrukcji nurtu 1921–1934'' (Wrocław, 1981) * Kowalska, Bozena. ''Henryk Stażewski'' (Warsaw, 1985)


External links


Henryk Stażewski
at Culture.pl
Henryk Stażewski
in Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw {{DEFAULTSORT:Stazewski, Henryk 20th-century Polish painters 20th-century Polish male artists 1894 births 1988 deaths Herder Prize recipients Polish male painters Abstract artists Constructivism (art) Eastern European culture