Henryk Stazewski (1894-1988) Lot n° 55

Henryk Stazewski (1894-1988) Relief nr. 38, 1969 Acrylic on metal and fiberboard Signed, titled and dated on the reverse Acrylic on metal and fiberboard; signed, titled and dated on the reverse 60,5 x 60 x 4,5 cm - 23 7/8 x 23 5/8 x 1 3/4 in. PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist To the present owner through successive transfers EXHIBITION Bordeaux, CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, Anka au cas par cas, June 23-December 31, 2022 This work is currently on view at the CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux and will be available to the purchaser at the conclusion of the exhibition Henryk Stazewski's work is considered to be the most classic example of abstraction in the 20th century. The first phase of his work is deeply rooted in the avant-garde movements, yet his career extends far beyond the period of existence of any of the modernist art groups. Beginning his practice of abstract painting in the 1920s, Stazewski continued it until his death in the late 1980s. Stazewski evolved his artistic approach in a constant dialogue with international artists. He played a role as a link between Eastern and Western Europe, a link made all the more important by his regular visits to Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. While there, he had the opportunity to make friends with such figures of the Parisian art scene as Piet Mondrian and Michel Seuphor, among others. Sta?ewski was a member of the constructivist group "A.R." whose most famous achievement was the establishment of an international collection of avant-garde art which was installed in the Art Museum in Lódz, Poland. He was also a member of important groups such as "Abstraction Creation" and "Circle and Square". It was in this context that Stazewski became friends with many international modernist artists. Taking advantage of his connections and relationships with many artists based in Paris, he took on the task of collecting works of art that were offered to add to this public collection. At the same time, as a painter living in Warsaw, he had close ties to the Eastern European art scene. It is interesting to note that he co-organized an exhibition of works by Kazimir Malevich in Warsaw in 1927 on the occasion of a visit of the Russian painter to Poland. This is why both his paintings and his entire artistic activity were so highly appreciated by the Parisian and European art world: the artist's collaboration with the prestigious Galerie Denise René, which began in 1957, is an eloquent testimony to this. It was around 1960 that Stazewski gave a new dimension to his work by moving from a flat pictorial surface to the creation of three-dimensional objects. Nevertheless, the chromatic value of these, produced and painted by Stazewski, remains as relevant as before, when the medium chosen was mainly paint on canvas. In his works, the painter searches for the harmony of colors and studies the values of their perception by defining contrasting juxtapositions that influence the eye of the viewer. His research focuses on the basic elements of painting such as color, tone, temperature, texture of the paint; all themes that the painter has addressed throughout his artistic career. This can be seen in the work presented here: the painted wooden relief "No. 38" from 1969, in which five rows of square elements can be observed - each row being of a different color and with a varying inclination towards the others. The variations of these basic elements considered by Stazewski as "objective" pictorial elements were conceived as a way to create "universal" artworks. The subject is defined not by the artist's personality or unique experiences, but by the invariable artistic characteristics of the painting itself: its color, its surface, its visual effect... Stazewski (like many other European avant-garde painters) was deeply committed to this doctrine known as modernist "medium specificity" in art theory. Stazewski's position in the art world evolved over the years. If he made his first steps in marginal artistic collectives, he became, in the mid-1950s, a figure of "doyen of the avant-garde", admired by the young generation of artists who sought to meet him to get to know the one who had lived in person the "glory hours" of the modernist movement. His studio, located on the top floor of a building that he shared for two decades with Edward Krasinski - a place that is today