Władysław Strzemiński (Polish pronunciation: ; ; 21 November 1893 – 26 December 1952) was a Polish

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

, art theoretician,

pedagogue Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

, and soldier. He is regarded as a pioneer of Constructivist

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

of the 1920s and 1930s and the developer of the theory of unism (Polish: ''unizm'').

Life and work

Strzemiński was born in

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

to Maksymilian Strzemiński and Ewa Rozalia Olechnowicz, both of whom were ethnically Polish and cultivated Polish traditions. His father was a lieutenant colonel in the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

, who hoped for a military career for his son. In 1914, Władysław Strzemiński graduated from the Military School of Civil Engineering in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he served as second lieutenant at the Osowiec Fortress. In 1915, he was severely wounded and crippled in the Attack of the Dead Men, for which he received the

Order of St. George The Order of Saint George () is the highest military decoration of the Russian Federation. It was originally established on 26 November 1769 Julian (7 December 1769 Gregorian) as the highest military decoration of the Russian Empire for commiss ...

. The injuries were so acute that portions of Strzemiński's right leg and left arm were amputated, and he partially lost sight in one of his eyes. In 1920, he married painter

Katarzyna Kobro Katarzyna Kobro (26 January 1898 – 21 February 1951) was a Polish avant-garde sculptor and a prominent representative of the Constructivist movement in Poland. A pioneer of innovative multi-dimensional abstract sculpture, she rejected A ...

. In 1922, he moved to Wilno (now

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

), and in the following year supported Vytautas Kairiūkštis in creating the first

art exhibition in what is now the territory of

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

(then part of Poland, under Polish rule). In November 1923, he moved to

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, where with Henryk Berlewi he founded the constructivist group Blok. Sala Neoplastyczna 1

During the 1920s, he formulated his theory of Unism (''Unizm'' in Polish). His paintings influenced the musical compositions of Polish composers

Zygmunt Krauze Zygmunt Krauze (born September 19, 1938) is a Polish composer of contemporary classical music, educator, and pianist. Biography Zygmunt Krauze is an important artist of his generation: a respected composer, valued pianist, educator, organiser of m ...

, the creator of unistic music, and Marcin Stańczyk, the inventor of Aftersounds (inspired by Strzemiński’s Afterimages). He is an author of a revolutionary book titled "The theory of vision". He was co creator of unique avant-garde art collection in Łódź gathered together thanks to the enthusiasm of members of the "a.r." group as

and

Henryk Stażewski Henryk Stażewski (pronounced: ; 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 Cons ...

(the artists) and

Julian Przyboś Julian Przyboś (5 March 1901 – 6 October 1970) was a Polish poet, essayist and translator, one of the most important poets of the Kraków Avant-Garde. Life Przyboś was born in Gwoźnica near Strzyżów to a peasant family. From 1912, h ...

and Jan Brzękowski (the poets). In postwar Łódź, Strzemiński was an instructor at the Higher School of Plastic Arts and Design ''Neoplastic Room'' at the Museum of Art, Łódź, where one of his students was Halina Ołomucka, survivor of the Nazi

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

s. His ''Neoplastic Room'' was installed in the museum in 1948 but was removed in 1950 as it failed to fit in with the socialist realist aesthetic imposed by

Włodzimierz Sokorski Włodzimierz Sokorski (2 July 1908 – 2 May 1999) was a Polish Communism, communist official, writer, military journalist and a brigadier general in the People's Republic of Poland. He was the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (Poland), ...

, the minister of culture of the

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party (, ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parti ...

. His works have been exhibited in such museums around the world as

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

, Museo Reina Sofia, Moderna Museet Malmö and Whitechapel Gallery.

In film

He is the subject of ''

Afterimage An afterimage, or after-image, is an image that continues to appear in the eyes after a period of exposure to the original image. An afterimage may be a normal phenomenon (physiological afterimage) or may be pathological (palinopsia). Illusory ...

'' (2016), the final film by

Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Witold Wajda (; 6 March 1926 – 9 October 2016) was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the "P ...

Selected paintings

File:Strzeminski Wladyslaw Kompozycja syntetyczna 1.jpg, ''Synthetic composition I'' (1923) File:Strzeminski Wladyslaw Martwa natura 3.jpg, ''Still life 3'' (1923) File:Strzeminski Wladyslaw Kompozycja unistyczna 4.jpg, ''Unitist composition 4'' (1925) File:Strzeminski Wladyslaw Martwa natura VI.jpg, ''Still life'' (1926) File:Strzeminski Wladyslaw Martwa natura 1926.jpg, ''Still life'' (1926) File:Strzeminski Wladyslaw Kompozycja architektoniczna 1.jpg, ''Architectural composition I'' (1926) File:Strzeminski Wladyslaw Martwa natura 1926-27.jpg, ''Still life IV'' (1926/1927) File:Strzeminski Wladyslaw Kompozycja architektoniczna 4a.jpg, ''Architetural composition IVa'' (1927) File:Władysław Strzemiński, "Pajzaż łódzki od strony Retkini".jpg, '' Landscape of Łódź Seen From Retkinia'' (1941)

References

Bibliography

*''Władysław Strzemiński. Readability of Images''. Proceedings of the international conference devoted to the work of Władysław Strzemiński, 13–14 October 2011, Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź 2015. *''Władysław Strzemiński 1893–1952. On the 100th Anniversary of His Birth'', Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi, Łódź 1993.

External links

BiographyEssays on Władysław StrzemińskiInternational Collection of Modern Art of the "a.r." group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Strzeminsky, Wladyslaw 1893 births 1952 deaths 20th-century Polish painters 20th-century Polish male artists Artists from Minsk Polish male painters Polish military personnel in the Imperial Russian Army of World War I Polish people from the Russian Empire