Henryk Stażewski, People and Places

From 1917, he bound his fortunes to the avant-garde. He exhibited with the Formists. In 1922, he participated in the Exhibition of New Art in Vilnius. In 1924, he co-founded the Group of Cubists, Constructivists and Suprematists Blok. He co-edited the magazines "Blok" and "Praesens", and also the Parisian "L'Art Contemporain - Contemporary Art". He was a member of the international groups Cercle et Carre (from 1929) and Abstraction-Creation (from 1931). Finally, he was active with Wladyslaw Strzeminski, Katarzyna Kobro, Jan Brzękowski and Julian Przybos in the "a.r." group, making a major contribution to the creation of the International Collection of Modern Art of the "a.r." group, and thus the Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi.

 After the war, he became involved with the Club of Young Artists and Scientists and the avant-garde Krzywe Koło Gallery in Warsaw. In 1965, together with Wieslaw Borowski, Anka Ptaszkowska and Mariusz Tchorek, he initiated the establishment of the Foksal Gallery in Warsaw.

He has exhibited all over the world. He painted, filled space with constructivist objects, studied the properties of color, texture, the influence of geometry on the nature of the image. He wrote a lot. He made countless notes in technical handwriting, in which he considered issues as complex as abstract art and as amusing as the adventures of his friend, artist and aristocrat Edward Krasinski, with whom he shared a studio. A lot of people used to come over there.

Authors of the photos include: Jan Bortkiewicz, Zbigniew Dłubak, Eustachy Kossakowski, Tadeusz Rolke, Arturo Schwarz, Jacek Stokłosa, Andrzej Żak.