Władysław Strzemiński
Władysław Strzemiński ( Belarusian Уладыслаў Страмінскі ; born November 21, 1893 in Minsk , Russian Empire ; † December 26, 1952 in Łódź , People's Republic of Poland ) was a Polish painter , art theorist and university teacher .
Life
Youth and military career
Strzemiński was born on November 21, 1893 in Minsk to a Polish family. His father was Maximilian Benedict Strzemiński (1847-1919) and his mother Ewa Rozalia nee Olechnowicz. The parents married in 1886. Władysław Strzemiński was baptized in the Catholic Church by Zlota Gorka near Minsk. His father was an officer in the Tzarist army and worked in the labor insurance fund. He had a sister named Janina Strzemiński and a brother named Walerian Strzemiński. He spent his childhood in a house at 21 Koschewanna Strasse.
In the years 1904-11 he studied at the Tzar Alexander II Cadet School in Moscow, which he successfully completed. In 1911 he began to study at the Tzar Nikolaus Military School of Engineering (Woyennoje Inschyneryinoje Uchylishche). He gained some notoriety during this time through his knowledge of architectural history and military engineering. In July 1914 he successfully completed his studies. Strzemiński was an officer and was involved in some military operations on the Eastern Front. On the night of May 6th, 1916, he was seriously injured by a shell that exploded in the trench. His right thigh and left forearm were amputated, and the splinters injured his eye. He then stayed for a long time in the Prokhorov Hospital in Moscow . The accident ended his military career and he had to use assistants for the rest of his life .
Beginning of artistic activity in Moscow
In the Prokhorov Hospital he met his future wife Katarzyna Kobro , who was looking after wounded soldiers there. In Moscow he came into contact with the private art collection of the factory owner Sergei Shchukin . It can be assumed that he studied art history and theory from 1917, but there are no more documents about it.
From May to November 1918 he took part in the sessions of the Subsection for Art and Artistic Industry ( "Subsection of Art and Artistic Industry" ), which was chaired by Vladimir Tatlin . The subsection belonged to the ISO (Moscow Fine Arts Section) of the People's Commissariat for Education . In autumn he began to study at the First State Free Art Workshop, where he met Katarzyna Kobro again. On a list dated December 5, 1918, of artists whose works were to be acquired by the ISO des NARKOMPROS for the future Museum of Artistic Culture in Petrograd.
His father died in January 1919. Strzemiński stayed in Minsk during this time. With the sculptor Ciechanowski and the director of the Minsk ISO Vsevolod Dmitryev , he designed the city decorations for the one-year anniversary of the Red Army on February 23, 1919. In February, he and Alexander Rodchenko were nominated for the sub-section for art and the arts industry. Together with Antoine Pewsner he headed the All-Russian Central Office for Exhibitions ( Wsserossyiskoye Tzentralnoye Vystawochnoje Bjuro ), which was part of the ISO. He exhibited his paintings in Ryazin and at the VIII Exhibition in Moscow. He finished his studies at the first state independent art workshops without a degree.
In Smolensk and a member of UNOWIS
In the autumn he moved to Smolensk . There he worked in the sub-section for art at the People's Commissariat for Education of the Smolensk District ( GubONO , acronym for Gubernski Otdel Narodnogo Obrasowanja ). In December he took part in an exhibition of Moscow and local artists, possibly at the invitation of Kazimir Malevich . Strzemiński was a member of UNOWIS . In the first half of 1920 he was director of the art section of the joint department of museums and fine arts ( Podotdel musejew i isobrasitelnich iskustw ), which belonged to the GubONO. As the representative of the section, he was the minister of the Art Council, whose first meeting took place on April 4th. The council decided on problems of theatrical decorations, exhibitions and others.
On March 15, 1920, an exhibition opened in Smolensk on the Strzemiński exhibited ten works, including drawings for Mayakovsky's drama Mysterium buffo . Some works were shown in the Museum of Artistic Culture (MChK, acronym for Museja Chudoschestvennoj Kultury ). On June 29, 1920, he gave a speech on the principles of creativity and structure in Raphael's paintings. Katarzyna Kobro also came to Smolensk in the summer . Together they supervised the GubONO of the ISO. Malevich came regularly to Smolensk from neighboring Vitebsk . They also taught principles of Cubism and Suprematism together . At that time Nadja Chodasjewitsch , artist and later wife of Fernand Léger, was studying with him . In June 1920 he exhibited with UNOWIS in Moscow.
Strzemiński and Katarzyna Kobro had their joint studio in the Bolshaya Sovetskaya in Smolensk. Together they designed posters for the central authority of the Russian telegraph agency ROSTA . In March 1921 he took part in a one-day UNOWIS exhibition in Vitebsk.
Stay in Vilnius
In late 1921 or early 1922, he married Katarzyna Kobro in a civil ceremony. At the end of 1921 they emigrated illegally to Poland, which is why they were imprisoned for a few weeks in early 1922. Her first stop was Vilnius (Lithuania was annexed by Poland at the time), where his family lived after his father's death. He taught at the Major Łukasiński military courses . In October he exhibited a relief at the First Russian Art Exhibition in Berlin in 1922 (catalog no. 568). He published a critical analysis of the development of Russian art under the title " On Russian Art - Notes" ( O sztuce rosyjskiej - notatki ).
In 1922 his sister Janina died. Kobro left Vilnius because she neither spoke Polish nor got on with his family. She moved to live with relatives in Riga .
Stay in Vilejka Powjatowa and member of BLOK
After the major Łukasiński military courses closed , he moved to Wilejka Powjatowa in 1923 in search of a new job . From 1923 to probably mid-1924 he taught drawing classes at the Henryk Sienkiewicz State College for boys and girls. During this time he created synthetic, post-Suprematist and post-cubist compositions. He worked with Vytautas Kainukstis , whom he presumably met in Moscow. The two organized the first Polish exhibition of constructivist art in Vilnius, the New Art Exhibition , which opened on May 20, 1923 in the Korso Theater. He was also involved in the design of the catalog. Works by Henryk Staiewski , Mieczysław Szczuka and Teresa Zarnower were represented at the exhibition . Strzemiński wrote a report on the exhibition for ZWROTNICA magazine .
In 1924 he co-founded the artist group Blok in Warsaw , in which Cubists , Suprematists and Constructivists came together. The group published the magazine BLOK , the first issue of which appeared on March 8, 1924. The editor of the magazine was Mieczysław Szczuka. He published various articles, some anonymously, and published pictures of his works in the magazine. He exhibited works at an exhibition by the group that took place on March 15, 1924 in the Laurin & Klement sales room in Warsaw. In the summer of 1924 he visited his wife in Rīga. On July 29, 1924, they were ecclesiastically married in order to obtain Polish citizenship.
After a vacation with his wife in the Bay of Rīga, they both moved to Szczekociny , where he taught drawing lessons at the Wloszczowski District College. The school's director was modern art supporter Adam Nowinski . Strzemiński regularly visited Warsaw, where he took part in Blok events. In the November / December issue of Blok he published his theory of Unismus (Polish Unizm ) for the first time under the title B = 2 ; his unistic paintings were influenced by the compositions of the Polish composer Zygmunt Krauze . With Blok he also exhibited in Rīga and possibly in Brussels and Tallinn .
In 1925 he designed several covers for ZWROTNICA and various volumes of poetry by Julian Przyboś . The two then enjoyed a long collaboration and friendship. During this time he also met Szymon Syrkus and Bohdan Lachert , both architects from Warsaw. In the same year a painting of his was exhibited at the MChK .
From January to February 1926, his works were exhibited at the International Theater Exhibition in New York. He probably also designed the sixth issue of ZWROTNICA magazine. In the same year he exhibited twice with the artist group Jednorog (Unicorn).
Membership in the Praesens group
In the summer of 1926 Strzemiński and his wife moved to Brezeziny . He taught drawing classes at the Stryjkowski Higher School of Humanities. Shortly after it was founded, but not a founding member, he joined the Praesens group shortly before its October exhibition. Together with Epstein he designed a "sculpture house". During this time he also designed different color schemes for Szymon Syrkus' buildings. In 1926 he exhibited paintings on glass, book covers and illustrations in the Galeria Zachęta . In the same year he wrote the statute of the Association of Modern Art Gallery , which only existed until 1927.
In 1927 he had his first solo exhibition in the Polish Art Club in Warsaw. The lecture he gave at this exhibition, Unism in Painting , was published as a book in the same year. In the middle of 1927 he moved with his wife to Zakowice, which he left again in August / September 1927 to move to Koluszki . He worked there while he was still living in Brezeziny. He taught in Koluszki at the college on A. Mickiewicz Street and at the Girls' College for Industry and Commerce . In November 1927, works from the MChK were shown in Leningrad at the exhibition New Tendencies in Art . In December he exhibited in Łódź.
In 1928 he co-designed the exhibition Salon der Modernisten . After 1928 he turned mainly to questions of architecture and sculpture.
ar and post war
In 1929 he founded the artist group "revolutionary artists" ( ar ).
He taught at the industrial school in Koluszki and in 1932 received the Łódź artist prize. In the post-war period he taught art history at the Łódź School of Art (now the Łódź Academy of Fine Arts); one of his students was u. a. Halina Ołomucka . In 1950 Strzemiński was relieved of his teaching post by the Ministry of Culture and Art because he had refused to recognize the principles of socialist realism .
In 1952 Strzemiński died. He was buried in the Łódź Old Cemetery.
reception
Strzemiński's works today are u. a. exhibited in the Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi and in the National Museum (Wroclaw) . The last years of Strzemiński's life became the subject of the 2016 film “Powidoki” (“Afterimages”) made by Andrzej Wajda with Bogusław Linda in the lead role.
Works (selection)
| year | title | technology | Dimensions [cm] | Collection, inventory number |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1919-20 | Industry tools and products | Oil, cork, tin, metal, plaster and canvas on wood | 44.5 × 33 | Russian Museum , B1665 |
| 1919-21 | Cubism - tensions in the structure of materials | Oil, cork, canvas | 22.5 x 17.5 | Russian Museum (?), MPW1124 |
| 1920 | The Red Army fights heroically at the front. The red rearguard must help the red front | Chromolithography on paper | 73 × 44.7 | Russian National Library , 218012 |
| 1926 | Architectural composition 1 | Oil on canvas | 90 × 64 | Muzeum Sztuki , MS / SN / M / 161 |
| 1928 | Green-red architecture | Oil on cardboard | 47.5 × 30 | Bochum Art Museum , 2071 |
| 1929 | Architectural composition 10c | Oil on canvas | 46 × 90 | Muzeum Sztuki, MS / SN / M / 174 |
| 1931 | View of Łódź | Tempera on cardboard | 24 × 20 | Muzeum Sztuki, MS / SN / M / 141 |
| 1932 | Unistic composition | Oil on plaster | 40.6 x 30.4 | Museum of Modern Art , 1075.1983 |
| 1934 | Seascape | gouache | 21 × 27 | Art Museum Bochum, k. A. |
Fonts
- O sztuce rosyjskiej - notatki . In: Tadeusz Peiper (Ed.): ZWROTNICA . November 1922. (Part 1), ZWROTNICA. Number 4. (Part 2).
- B = 2 . In: Blok . No. 8-9 , 1924.
- Unizm w malarstwie ( The Unimus in Painting ; 1928)
- Kompozycja przestrzeni. Obliczanie rytmu czasoprzestrzennego ( Composition of space. Calculation of spatiotemporal rhythm ; 1930)
- Teoria widzenia ( The theory of seeing ) (posthumously 1957)
literature
- Kobro & Strzemiński. Avant-garde prototypes . Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia and Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź 2017, ISBN 978-84-8026-550-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r DDG: Wladyslaw Strzeminski 1893 - 1953. Accessed November 22, 2017 .
- ^ First Russian Art Exhibition in Berlin 1922 . Van Diemen Gallery, Berlin 1922.
- ↑ Nationalgalerie Berlin: New Acquisitions '75 -'85 . (Exhibition catalog 1985)
- ↑ Halina Olomucka , website of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Retrieved May 3, 2012
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Strzemiński, Władysław |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Polish painter, art theorist and university professor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 21, 1893 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Minsk |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 26, 1952 |
| Place of death | Łódź |