Henryk Berlewi (

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

: הענריק בערלעװי; October 20, 1894 – August 2, 1967) was a Polish-French

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, graphic designer and

art theorist Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

, who is primarily remembered as an abstract artist who paved the way for optical art, but he was also an important figure in

book design and typography in the early 1920s. He drew portraits of many Jewish writers and artists, among them

Uri Zvi Greenberg Uri Zvi Greenberg ( he, אוּרִי צְבִי גְּרִינְבֵּרְג; September 22, 1896 – May 8, 1981; also spelled Uri Zvi Grinberg) was an acclaimed Modern Hebrew poetry, Israeli poet, journalist and politician who wrote in Yiddish ...

.The Mendele Review: Yiddish Literature and Language
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Biography

Berlewi was born in Warsaw to an assimilated Polish Jewish family. He studied art in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and was active in Polish art circles. Supported by his mother, Berlewi studied fine art in Warsaw (1904–1909), Antwerp (1909–1910), and Paris (1911–1912), returning to Warsaw in 1913 to study at the school of design. During World War I he discovered

Futurism Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such ...

and

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...

, and in 1918 he met the futurist

Aleksander Wat Aleksander Wat was the pen name of Aleksander Chwat (1 May 1900 – 29 July 1967), a Polish poet, writer, art theoretician, memorist, and one of the precursors of the Polish futurism movement in the early 1920s, considered to be one of the more i ...

and the formist

Anatol Stern Anatol Stern (24 October 1899 in Warsaw – 19 October 1968 in Warsaw) was a Polish poet, writer and art critic. Born 24 October 1899 to an assimilated family of Jewish ancestry, Stern studied at the Polish Studies Faculty of the University ...

, fellow Jews whose Polish language verse he later illustrated. In 1918-1922 Berlewi focused on Jewish themes. In 1920 Berlewi attended

El Lissitzky Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...

's lecture in Warsaw, motivating him to move to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, where in 1922–1923 he abandoned figurative art for pure constructivist abstraction. In 1922 he participated in the Novembergruppe exhibition. Along with

Jankel Adler Jankel Adler (born Jankiel Jakub Adler; 26 July 1895 – 25 April 1949) was a Polish Jewish painter and printmaking, printmaker. Biography Jankiel Jakub Adler was born as the seventh of ten children in Tuszyn, a suburb of Łódź. In 1912 he be ...

he was chosen to represent Jewish artists from Eastern Europe at the

International Congress of Progressive Artists International Congress of Progressive Artists was organised by Young Rhineland (Junge Rheinland), with help from the November Group, the Darmstadt Secession and the Dresden Secession in Düsseldorf, 29-31 May 1922. The aim of creating an internat ...

, where he met El Lissitzky,

Viking Eggeling Viking Eggeling (21 October 1880, Lund – 19 May 1925, Berlin) was a Swedish avant-garde artist and filmmaker connected to dadaism, Constructivism, and abstract art and was one of the pioneers in absolute film and visual music. His ...

(to whom Berlewi devoted an article published in 'Albatross' in 1922),

László Moholy-Nagy László Moholy-Nagy (; ; born László Weisz; July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as a professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the i ...

Theo van Doesburg Theo van Doesburg (, 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch artist, who practiced painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. He was married to artist, pianist and choreographer Nelly ...

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, and also photographs and glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary German ...

Laszlo Peri Peter Laszlo Peri (born László Weisz; 13 June 1899 – 19 January 1967) was an artist and sculptor. Name changes László Weisz was born on 13 June 1899 in Budapest, Hungary. His family Magyarized their family name to "''Péri''". When he mo ...

and

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd ...

. In May-Sep 1923 he presented his first Mechano-Faktura compositions in the Novembergruppe section of the ''Grosse Berliner Kunstaustellung''. In November 1923 Berlewi returned to Warsaw, where with

Władysław Strzemiński Władysław Strzemiński (21 November 1893 – 26 December 1952) was a Polish avant-garde painter of international renown. Life and work Strzemiński was born in Minsk to an ethnic Polish family. In 1914, he graduated from the Military School o ...

he founded the constructivist group

Blok Blok may refer to: *Blok (surname) *Blok (comics), the fictional superhero of the DC Comics universe *Blok M, downtown shopping area in Jakarta, Indonesia *Mega Bloks, plastic building blocks produced by Mega Bloks, Incorporated *The Vlaams Blok (D ...

. In his review of the exhibition which accompanied the International Congress of Progressive Artists, published in ''Nasz Kurier'', he stated that

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

was obsolete and was replaced by Novembergruppe's Dada and by constructivism. In March 1924 Berlewi published his theoretical tract (in progress since 1922) ''Mechano-Faktura'', using mechanical means to create texture, prefaced by the writer

. Its basic premise rejects the illusion of space in favor of two-dimensionality; color is reduced to black, white, and red, and visual equivalents of images are accomplished by mechanical means using rhythmic arrangements of lines and simple geometrical forms such as circles and squares. Along with the publication he organises the first mechanofaktura exhibition at the Austro-Daimler Automobile Salon. In summer 1924 Berlewi was invited by

Herwarth Walden Herwarth Walden (actual name Georg Lewin; 16 September 1879, in Berlin – 31 October 1941, in Saratov, Russia) was a German expressionist artist and art expert in many disciplines. He is broadly acknowledged as one of the most important discove ...

, founder of the ''

Der Sturm ''Der Sturm'' () was a German List of avant-garde magazines, avant-garde art and literary magazine founded by Herwarth Walden, covering Expressionism, Cubism, Dada and Surrealism, among other artistic movements. It was published between 1910 an ...

'' magazine and gallery to exhibit his mechanofaktura works in Berlin; the German version of his manifesto was published. Later in 1924 he founded the Reklama-Mechano advertising agency with Wat and Stanisław Brucz, which obtained a contract for the Plutos chocolate brochure. In 1926 Berlewi quit his research and returned to figurative art, working as a set designer. In 1927 he settled in Paris along with other Polish and Jewish artists. In 1928-1938 he traveled through Belgium and made a few portraits of the political and literary world until he learned that he was seriously ill and stopped working. In 1942 Berlewi left Paris for

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, and in 1943-1944 joined the French Resistance. In 1947 he returned to painting. Wanting to "reintroduce the object", he created still lives inspired by the French masters of the 17th century. Rediscovered by a French critic, Berlewi took part in a major Paris show, ''Precursors of Abstract Art in Poland'' (1957). Suddenly appreciated again, he held one-man shows in Berlin (1963, 1964), Paris (1965), and Warsaw (1966). After his death more shows were held in Zurich (1974) and New York (1976, 1978). He died in Paris.

References

External links

Official site Henryk Berlewi Archive

Henryk Berlewi

18 Most Important Polish Graphic Designers of the 20th Century
* Berlewi's works i
Central Jewish Library
20th-century Polish painters 20th-century Polish male artists Jewish painters Jewish socialists Artists from Warsaw Polish expatriates in France 1894 births 1967 deaths Polish male painters {{poland-painter-stub