Henryk Berlewi - Chair with red drapery
Color lithograph
Year: 1950/1953
Dimensions: 28 x 38.5 cm, 45 x 56 cm (sheet)
Work signed by hand in pencil, p.d.: "H.Berlewi.1950-1953″
Below dedication in pencil: To my friend, Rostem Averbuch with all affection and thanks, H. Berlewi, Paris 9.12.53
L.d.: 20/150
Henryk Berlewi (Warsaw, October 30, 1894 - Paris, August 2, 1967). He was a painter, graphic artist, typographer and critic. He was a major figure of Constructivist art in Poland in the 1920s.
He studied at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp (1909-10), theEcole des Arts Décoratifs and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, before returning to Warsaw in1913 to study at the Drawing School under the direction of Jan Kauzik (1913-15). In 1915-18 he created and exhibited, including at the Zachęta Gallery, portraits and figural compositions. From 1918 dates Berlewi's rapprochement with the circles of Warsaw Futurists and Formists. Deformation and elements of expressionism appear in his works. Under the influence of El Lissitzki, who visitedWarsaw in 1921, he became interested in the idea of renewing Jewish art, taking up thematic threads related to the culture and daily life of Jews. In 1922-23 Berlewi stayed in Berlin, where, under the influence of avant-garde trends and contacts with prominent artists, he radically changed his art and developed the theory ofmechanofaktura, which he published in print in 1924 in Warsaw and Berlin (in "Der Sturm"). The artist combined the publication with individual exhibitions in both cities. The Warsaw exhibition took place in the Daimler-Benz automobile showroom, which harmonized with the mechanofaktura idea of bringing art and technology as close as possible, which was to be achieved by, among other things, building paintings from repetitive geometric elements. In 1924-26 Berlewi co-founded the "Blok" group with other Polish artists. In1926 he returned to subject art, but did not break with the constructivist movement. In 1928 he went to Paris, where he gained a reputation as a portraitist. During the years of World War II, he hid in the south of France, and in 1943-44 collaborated inNice with the resistance movement. After the war, he continued figurative painting until 1957, when he returned to abstraction under the influence of new trends in art, as well as the retrospective exhibition of Constructivism at the Denise Renée gallery, in which he participated. He referred to the theory and practice of mechanofaktura, treating it as a starting point for creating his own version of op-art.
