Tadeusz Kantor

Tadeusz Kantor (born in 1915 in Wielopole Skrzyński, died in 1990 in Krakow). One of the most important artists in Polish avant-garde art; associated with painting, drawing, happening, scenography and directing. A reformer of the Polish theater scene of the 20th century.

In the years 1934-1939 he was a student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. During World War II, the founder of the Underground Independent Theater. In 1946 he co-founded Grupa Młodych Plastyków, which in 1957 changed its name to the 2nd Kraków Group, naming it a pre-war group of avant-garde artists.

In 1948, Kantor presented his metaphorical paintings at the 1st Exhibition of Modern Art in Krakow. Until the mid-1970s, he created stage design and theatrical costumes. As a protest against socialist realism, in the first half of the 1950s he decided to stop his artistic activity. It was only in 1955 that he established the avant-garde Cricot 2 Theater. He was accompanied by Maria Jarema and Kazimierz Mikulski. Two years later, he reactivated the 2nd Krakow Group. At the Cricot 2 Theater, Kantor realized projects based on Witkacy's dramas: Autonomiczny Theater, Informel Theater, Zerowy Theater, Happening Theater and Impossible Theater

Thanks to many trips abroad (including to Paris and New York), Tadeusz Kantor had the opportunity to learn about the latest phenomena in world art that influenced his works in the field of informel, dadaism and conceptualism. From the 1960s, he created only abstract forms (including the famous assemblages) and realized happenings in cooperation with the Foksal Gallery in Warsaw (including "Panoramiczny Happening Morski" in 1967). In 1975 he prepared the play "Dead Class", in which he announced the manifesto of the Theater of Death. In the 1980s, he continued his theatrical activities as part of the Cricot 2 Theater. It was then that he returned to figurative forms in his painting activity, reflecting the nature of his own work.

The artist's last show was the play "Today is my birthday" from 1990, which was produced by Cricot 2 after the author's death.