Stefan Krygier, Egyptian Dancers, 1956

mixed technique, paper, 50 x 40 cm signed, dated and inscribed p.d.: S. Krygier/56/Egyptian Dancers

provenance: family collection, Lodz


Stefan Krygier (1923, Lodz - 1997, Lodz) One of the most important artists of the Polish postwar avant-garde. Graduated from the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Lodz, where he studied from 1945-1950 under Stefan Wegner (Painting Department) and Władysław Strzemiński (Spatial Art Department). In 1963, he received a diploma in architecture from the Warsaw University of Technology.

In the late 1940s, Krygier joined the Club of Young Artists and Scientists in Warsaw, then co-founded the St-53 art group in Katowice. He was involved in painting, printmaking, activities on the borderline of spatial forms and environment. He also carried out architectural and urban planning projects. He taught practical classes and art theory at his alma mater in Lodz from 1957 until the end of his life.

Since his studies, he strengthened his acquaintance with Władysław Strzemiński, with whom he published a theoretical work, "Seeing the Gothic." They also collaborated in projects, as the artist himself wrote, "of an exhibition and interior architecture nature." Krygier supported Strzeminski during his most difficult period, until his death in 1952.

Krygier's work was influenced by such trends as Cubism, Constructivism and Unism instilled in the young students of the Academy of Fine Arts by Strzeminski. With each successive decade, Krygier explored new techniques and forms of artistic expression. Paintings from the 1950s are inspired by the art of Egypt and Greece. The 1960s included matter painting, wood sculpture and printmaking. In the 1970s, the artist created oil paintings referring to Constructivism. Later in the 1980s and 1990s he engaged in simultaneous painting. Krygier, with his broad interests - artistic, theoretical and technical - left behind a body of work that is one of the most interesting phenomena in Polish postwar art. Continuing the tradition of the Lodz avant-garde, he skillfully combined the heritage of Polish and world art with his own theories on the physical and metaphysical limits of the image.

Krygier's works are in many museums and private collections in Poland and around the world.