Henryk Stażewski (9 January 1894 – 10 June 1988) was a Polish painter, visual artist and writer.
Stażewski has been described as the "father of the Polish avant-garde" and is considered a pivotal figure in the history of constructivism and geometric abstraction in Central and Eastern Europe. His career spanned seven decades and he was one of the few prominent Polish artists of the interwar period who remained active and gained further international recognition in the second half of the 20th century.
Polish abstract painter and maker of reliefs, born in Warsaw. Studied at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts 1913-20, and was afterwards strongly influenced by Cubism. Participated in the New Art exhibition in Vilno in 1923 organised by Strzeminski and Kajruksztis, and joined the Blok group of Cubists, Suprematists and Constructivists that resulted. Editor-in-chief of the first five issues of the periodical Blok 1924. From 1926 adopted an abstract style influenced by Dutch Neo-Plasticism and Russian Constructivism.
Spent much of the period 1929-34 in Paris, where he took an active part in the groups Cercle et Carré and Abstraction-Création with Arp, Mondrian, Vantongerloo and others; also helped to collect works by avant-garde artists to establish a new museum of abstract art at Lodz. First one-man exhibition with Karol Krynski at the Instytut Propagandy Sztuki, Warsaw, 1933. Was unable to paint during the German Occupation 1939-45, and all but a few of his early works were destroyed.
After the war painted figurative compositions and nudes, then in 1955 turned again to a geometrical abstract style. Began to make reliefs in 1957, at first mainly in white, or black and white, then from 1967 in colour, many of them with movable parts. Lived and died in 1988 in Warsaw.
"Relief Nr. 54", Acrylic on wood, 44 x 44 x 3,4 cm, 1976
