{"id":656550,"date":"2026-05-21T14:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/656550\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T14:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:16:11","slug":"venice-show-brings-together-two-leading-figures-from-the-polish-avant-garde-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/656550\/","title":{"rendered":"Venice show brings together two leading figures from the Polish avant-garde – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost 70 years after their work was first shown in Venice, two artists regarded as central figures in the 20th century Polish avant-garde\u2014the artist, playwright and theatre director Tadeusz Kantor and the painter, sculptor and actress Maria Jarema\u2014are the focus of a collateral exhibition during this year\u2019s Biennale that highlights the interdisciplinary and intertwined nature of their work.<\/p>\n

Organised by the Warsaw-based Starak Family Foundation at the Procuratie Vecchie on the northern side of St Mark\u2019s Square, the exhibition, Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) Emballage Cricotage and Madame Jarema (until 22 November), brings together major paintings, monotypes, sculptural works, theatre props and costumes, culminating in a room dedicated to Kantor\u2019s internationally renowned theatre piece, The Dead Class (1975).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tadeusz Kantor, Bench (The Dead Class) (1975\u201382) Photo: Bozzy and Savary, courtesy of Galerie Kal\u00e9idoscope); Courtesy \u00a9 Lech Stangret & Dorota Krakowska \/ Tadeusz Kantor Foundation<\/p>\n

In the period following the end of the Second World War, Kantor and Jarema became key figures in Krak\u00f3w\u2019s avant-garde scene, co-founding the highly influential Cricot 2 theatre group in 1955. Work by Jarema was exhibited at the 1958 Venice Biennale, before her death later that year at the age of 49, while Kantor, who went on to attract significant international acclaim, featured in the Polish pavilion two years later.<\/p>\n

According to the show\u2019s curator, Ania Muszy\u0144ska, the Procuratie exhibition, \u201cis first and foremost, an exhibition devoted to Tadeusz Kantor\u201d, with over 60 works on display spanning \u201cthe key phases of his artistic practice\u201d, from the 1950s through to his last painting series, produced between 1997 and 1990.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tadeusz Kantor Photo: \u00a9 Wojciech Plewi\u0144ski<\/p>\n

Describing him as, \u201cone of the most important and widely recognised Polish artists of the 20th century\u201d, Muszy\u0144ska says Kantor played a \u201ctruly foundational\u201d role. \u201cIt was Kantor\u201d, the curator explains, \u201cthrough his extensive contacts in the West and the unique possibility of travelling internationally with Cricot 2, who became a conduit for new artistic ideas and tendencies, bringing them into Poland. He created Poland\u2019s first informel painting, the first assemblage, the first performance, and the first happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Muszy\u0144ska says, \u201cit was essential for me to present Maria Jarema as a figure fundamental to the formation of Kantor\u2019s radically free and avant-garde understanding of art.\u201d Works in the exhibition by Jarema include nine monotypes from the Starak Collection and specially reconstructed costumes based on designs Jarema produced for her first two theatrical collaborations with Kantor.<\/p>\n

While Jarema\u2019s work has not previously been as widely known as that of Kantor, she has recently begun to attract greater attention, with a large exhibition<\/a> currently presenting her pieces in dialogue with those of acclaimed international peers at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.<\/p>\n

\u201cJarema\u2019s importance to Kantor\u201d, Muszy\u0144ska notes, \u201cwas fundamental. As a slightly older artist, she introduced him to the ideas of the pre-war avant-garde, of which she herself had been an active participant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Portrait of Maria Jarema Photo: \u00a9 Courtesy of the artist\u2019s family<\/p>\n

The relationship between the two, the curator says, was unique, with Kantor usually seen as \u201can authoritarian figure\u201d who \u201cvery rarely spoke of other artists with admiration and almost never acknowledged that another artist\u2019s work had influenced his own.\u201d<\/p>\n

A particularly moving item in the exhibition for Muszy\u0144ska is a letter-poem written by Kantor to Jarema. \u201cThey were never romantically involved,\u201d she explains, \u201cyet they remained intensely connected and mutually fascinated by one another. Within the canon of post-war Polish art, these are two absolutely fundamental figures \u2014 not only as artists and personalities, but as creators who rebuilt the language of the avant-garde after the catastrophe of the Second World War.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost 70 years after their work was first shown in Venice, two artists regarded as central figures in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88,9543,5332,27562],"class_list":["post-656550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-exhibitions","tag-poland","tag-venice-biennale-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}