Stażewski, Henryk

▪ Polish artist

born January 9, 1894, Warsaw, Russian Empire [now in Poland]

died June 10, 1988, Warsaw

      Polish painter and graphic artist who was a leading figure in Polish avant-garde art.

      Educated at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts (1913–19), Stażewski was a founding member of three Polish artist groups: Blok (1924–26), Praesens (1926–29), and a.r. (1929–36). During the early 1920s, he painted highly simplified, nearly monochrome still lifes. In 1924 he abandoned subject matter for a completely abstract style based on geometric shapes and strong vertical and horizontal lines. He typically used pale colours or entirely white, black, or gray designs. Beginning in the 1920s, Stażewski frequently traveled to Paris, where he met the Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian and joined the Cercle et Carré (“Circle and Square”) and Abstraction-Création groups of abstract artists.

      Stażewski reintroduced representation into his paintings in 1934, and he subsequently experimented with various approaches to landscapes and portraits. Although most of his prewar works were destroyed during World War II, his large one-man show in Warsaw in 1955 helped to revive both Polish art and his own artistic career; the same year, he received Warsaw's Golden Cross of Merit. Beginning in 1957, he once again returned to a spare and geometric abstract style, which he employed in reliefs as well as paintings.

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