Tadeusz Kantor - Collection “A”
October 7 – November 13, 2005
Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) – director, painter, writer, stage designer, art theoretician, creator of happenings, teacher – created his own creative style drawing inspiration from constructivism from dadaism, informel painting and surrealism, and realized it in various fields of art.
The “A” collection is a unique collection of drawings, particularly valuable due to the fact that it was the author himself in the 1980s who made the selection and secured them to prevent their dispersal, and then sorted and arranged them in such a way that they are a recapitulation of his own ideas and theories and the story of his entire artistic life.
The works are diverse in terms of the technique used, ranging from pencil and ink, pastels, tempera, his favorite mixed media techniques, and collage.
Chronologically, the oldest of them date back to the 1930s and concern the stage design projects for “The Death of Tintagiles”, the next ones are traces of the activities of the phenomenal occupation theater (“Balladyna” and “The Return of Odysseus”), many years of cooperation with Cracow theaters (“Saint Joan, ‘Don Juan’, ‘Hamlet’, ‘The Ravens’…), projects of the Cricot 2 Theater, up to the times of ‘Wielopole’ and ‘The Dead Class’.
Drawing is a technique that is characterized by great spontaneity, and thus considerable sincerity of creative expression. Despite the will of the author, it has still not been possible to create a permanent gallery of drawings, which should encourage viewers all the more to see them in an unusual exhibition, telling the story of a man and an artist who is a unique phenomenon in the history of Polish art.
