Page 63 - Studio International - October 1966

Henryk Stazewski was born
in Warsaw in 1894 where he
now lives. He was co-founder
of the BLOK (1925) and
Praesens (1926) groups and
a member of 'a.r.' (1930) and
Abstraction-Creation.
Staiewski is the most eminent
of the older generation of
Polish avant-garde artists
and is one of the few Poles
to have made contact with
the leaders of modernist
movements abroad.
Mondrian, Arp, Seuphor,
Van Doesburg and Malevich
were his friends. He has been
represented in many foreign
exhibitions and was the major
Polish artist showing at this
year's Venice Biennale.

H. Staiewski
Collage No. 7 1961
Paper on wood
11 x 14 1/2 in.

effect on some of the younger and more important
artists, particularly in Warsaw. Stażewski is still at work
in the capital and the fact that he had to wait until this
year for a major representation at a foreign Biennale is
some measure of the conservatism at work in official art
circles.
In 1927 a group called Revolutionary Artists was founded,
and staged important exhibitions of the work of contem-
porary foreign artists in Poland. Arp, Ozenfant, Leger,
Helion, and Ernst, for example, all came to the attention
of the public through these exhibitions.
After the war most of the contacts which had been
broken could not be re-established and this complicated
the practical situation for the Polish artist with roots in
the avant-garde tradition. The situation still remains com-
plicated. Accustomed to international exchange, Polish
artists today are by comparison extremely isolated.
Exhibitions from abroad are infrequent and often limited
in scope. Books and periodicals from the West are hard
to come by, and what contacts there are between Polish
Above
4 Stażewski made contact in Paris in 1925 with Mondrian, and visiting artists from abroad are most often organized
Blue Relief No. 15 1962 Seuphor, Van Doesburg, and Arp, and in 1927 met by the authorities.
Oil on wood
33 1/2 x 24 3/8 in. Malevich when that artist, himself of Polish origin, The official machine intrudes at almost every level.
arrived in Warsaw to organize an exhibition of his There are no private galleries at all, and although those
Above right Suprematist paintings. Stażewski continued to keep up galleries which are ultimately controlled by the Ministry
White-Black Relief No. 20 1962
Oil on wood his contacts with Paris in the 1930's. He showed at the of Culture are liberal and progressive, the artist must
22 3/8 x 22 3/8 in.
Cercle et Carré exhibition in 1931 and joined the Abstraction- find official—and therefore organized—outlets for his work.
Creation group. Stażewski's influence on Polish art has In spite of these conditions, the artist enjoys many privi-
been crucial and lasting and it continues to have its leges in Poland. He is a valued and respected member of
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