Henryk Stażewski (1894-1988) - Konstruktion 1984

Henryk Stażewski: Konstruktion (Composition), 1984

Original serigraph (silkscreen) on card, signed and dated in pencil lower right "H. Stażewski 1984" and numbered lower left. Sheet 15 × 14 cm; framed 23 × 23 × 4 cm.

A refined late composition by one of the founding figures of Polish constructivism. On a warm cream ground, a small number of fine black lines describe an open geometric figure — verticals, a diagonal and a triangular form held in spare, precise balance. Nothing is filled or weighted; the image consists purely of line, interval and the tension between them. Executed in Stażewski's ninetieth year, the sheet distils six decades of constructivist thinking into a single economical gesture, the reduction to essentials that defined his mature art.

The serigraph was produced by Edition Meissner, Hamburg, in 1984 on the occasion of the artist's 90th birthday, and issued in the folding cards of the Lufthansa series "Künstler der Welt / Artists of the World," presented "with compliments" to the airline's valued customers.

Henryk Stażewski (Warsaw 1894–1988) was a pivotal figure of Polish abstract and constructivist art. Trained at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, he was a key member of the avant-garde groups Blok, Praesens and a.r., and — with Władysław Strzemiński and Katarzyna Kobro — one of the founders of the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź in 1931, the first museum in Europe dedicated to modern art. His work is characterised by geometric clarity, pure line and harmonious colour. It is held in major collections including the National Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the Zachęta National Gallery of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Condition: good.

Provenance: Edition Meissner, Hamburg — Swiss Private Collection, Basel.