Dimensions: 38 x 27.5 cm (print)
Signed and dated in pencil underneath: 'H. Berlewi 50-53 | [dedication]' and inscribed l.d.: '17/150'
signed and dated on the stone p.d.: 'H.BERLEWI - 1950'
Literature
- Magdalena Frankowska, Artur Frankowski, Berlewi, Gdańsk 2009, p. 88 (ill.).
Biography
Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, then continued his education in Antwerp and the Parisian Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Considered a precursor of op-art. Representative of the most avant-garde trend of Polish modern art. He was a member of the "Blok" grouping, and was associated with the European artistic avant-garde - including T. van Doesburg, V. Eggeling, M. van der Rohe, L. Moholy-Nagy. His interest in Constructivism was directed by El Lissitzky, whom the artist met. In the 1920s he exhibited and stayed in Berlin. He had a solo exhibition there in 1926 at Der Sturm gallery. In 1924, he announced his manifesto "Mechano-Faktura," in which he rejected spatial illusion painting in favor of two-dimensional canvases. He limited the color scale to white, black and red and used stencils. In 1928 he settled permanently in Paris and returned to figurative painting - he painted mainly portraits. Recognized by world critics as one of the several hundred most outstanding artists of the 20th century ("ARTof the 20th Century" TASCHEN 2000)
