Difference between revisions of "Henryk Berlewi"

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Born 1894 in Warsaw. Studies at the fine arts academies of Warsaw (1904–1909), Antwerp (1909–1910), and Paris (1911–1912), returning to Warsaw in 1913 to study at the school of design. During World War I, he discovered futurism and Dada and in 1918 met with the futurist Aleksander Wat and the formist Anatol Stern, Jews whose Polish-language verse he later illustrated.  
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{{Infobox artist
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|image = Berlewi.jpg
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|imagesize = 250px
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|birth_date = {{birth date|1894|10|20|mf=y}}
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|birth_place = [[Warsaw]], [[Poland]]
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|death_date = {{Death date and age|1967|8|2|1894|10|20|mf=y}}
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|death_place = Paris, France
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}}
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[[Image:Mechano-faktura_exhibition_1924.jpg|thumb|258px|''Mechano-faktura'' exhibition held in an automobile salon of Austro-Daimler in Warsaw, 1924.]]
 +
'''Henryk Berlewi''' (1894–1967) was a Polish Jewish painter, graphic designer and art theorist. Berlewi is primarily remembered as an abstract artist who paved the way for optical art, but he was also an important figure in Yiddish book design and typography in the early 1920s.
  
1920 attends [[El Lissitzky]]'s lecture in Warsaw, for Berlewi a decisive encounter to move to Berlin, where in 1922–1923 he abandons figurative art for pure constructivist abstraction. 1922 participates at the [[Novembergruppe]] exhibition. Along with Adler he is chosen to represent Jewish artists from Eastern Europe at the [[Congress of International Progressive Artists]]. Meets [[El Lissitzky]], [[Viking Eggeling]] (to whom Berlewi devoted article published in 'Albatross' in 1922), and many others (Moholy-Nagy, van Doesburg, Richter, van der Rohe). May-Sep 1923 presents his first 'Mechano-Faktura' compositions in the Novembergruppe section of the [[Grosse Berliner Kunstaustellung]].  
+
==Biography==
 +
Born 1894 in Warsaw to an assimilated Polish Jewish family. Supported by his mother, he studies fine arts in Warsaw (1904–1909), and later at the fine arts academies in Antwerp (1909–1910), and Paris (1911–1912), returning to Warsaw in 1913 to study at the school of design. During World War I, he discovers futurism and Dada and in 1918 meets the futurist [[Aleksander Wat]] and the formist [[Anatol Stern]], Jews whose Polish-language verse he later illustrated.  
  
November 1923 returns to Warsaw. With [[Wladyslaw Strzeminski|Strzeminski]] founds a constructivist group [[Blok]]. In his review of the exhibition which accompanied the Congress in Dusseldorf, published in 'Nasz Kurier', states that expressionism is obsolete and was replaced by Novembergruppe's dada and by constructivism. March 1924 publishes his theoretical tract being written since 1922, ''Mechano-Faktura'' (using mechanical means to create texture), prefaced by the writer [[Alexander Wat]]; its basic premise rejects the illusion of space in favor of two-dimensionality; color is reduced to black, white, and red, and visual equivalents of images are accomplished by mechanical means using rhythmic arrangements of lines and simple geometrical forms such as circles and squares. Along with the publication he organises the first mechanofaktura exhibition at the Austro-Daimler Automobile Salon. Summer 1924, invited by Herwarth Walden, founder of the Der Sturm magazine and gallery, to exhibit his mechanofaktura works in Berlin; the German version of his manifesto gets published. 1924 established ''Reklama-Mechano'' advertising agency with Wat and [[Stanisław Brucz]], that—among its rare realizations—worked on the Plutos chocolate folder.
+
1920 attends [[El Lissitzky]]'s lecture in Warsaw, for Berlewi a decisive encounter to move to [[Berlin]], where in 1922–1923 he abandons figurative art for pure constructivist abstraction. 1922 participates at the [[Novembergruppe]] exhibition. Along with Adler he is chosen to represent Jewish artists from Eastern Europe at the [[Congress of International Progressive Artists]]. Meets [[El Lissitzky]], [[Viking Eggeling]] (to whom Berlewi devoted article published in 'Albatross' in 1922), and many others ([[László Moholy-Nagy|Moholy-Nagy]], [[Theo van Doesburg|van Doesburg]], [[Hans Richter|Richter]], [[Ludwig Mies van der Rohe|van der Rohe]]). May-Sep 1923 presents his first ''Mechano-Faktura'' compositions in the Novembergruppe section of the [[Grosse Berliner Kunstaustellung]].  
  
1926 he quits his research and returns to figurative art and works as a set designer. 1927 settles in Paris, as did other Polish and Jewish artists. 1928-1938 travels through Belgium and does a few portraits of the political and literary world. At that time, learns that he is seriously ill, and stops the artistic activity whatsoever.
+
November 1923 returns to Warsaw. With [[Wladyslaw Strzeminski|Strzeminski]] founds a constructivist group [[Blok]]. In his review of the exhibition which accompanied the [[Congress of International Progressive Artists|Congress]] in [[Düsseldorf]], published in ''Nasz Kurier'', he states that expressionism is obsolete and was replaced by Novembergruppe's dada and by constructivism. March 1924 publishes his theoretical tract being written since 1922, ''Mechano-Faktura'' (using mechanical means to create texture), prefaced by the writer [[Alexander Wat]]; its basic premise rejects the illusion of space in favor of two-dimensionality; color is reduced to black, white, and red, and visual equivalents of images are accomplished by mechanical means using rhythmic arrangements of lines and simple geometrical forms such as circles and squares. Along with the publication he organises the first mechanofaktura exhibition at the Austro-Daimler Automobile Salon. Summer 1924, invited by Herwarth Walden, founder of the ''Der Sturm'' magazine and gallery, to exhibit his mechanofaktura works in Berlin; the German version of his manifesto gets published. 1924 establishes ''Reklama-Mechano'' advertising agency with Wat and [[Stanisław Brucz]], that—among its rare realizations—worked on the Plutos chocolate brochure.
  
1942 leaves Paris, finds refuge in Nice and enters the French Resistance (1943-1944). 1947 returns to painting. Wanting to "reintroduce the object", he makes still lives inspired by the French masters of the 17th century.
+
1926 he quits his research and returns to figurative art and works as a set designer. 1927 settles in [[Paris]], as did other Polish and Jewish artists. 1928-1938 travels through Belgium and does a few portraits of the political and literary world. At that time, learns that he is seriously ill, and stops the artistic activity whatsoever.
  
Rediscovered by a French critic, Berlewi took part in a major Paris show, 'Precursors of Abstract Art in Poland' (1957). Suddenly appreciated again, he also had one-man shows in Berlin (1963, 1964), Paris (1965), Warsaw (1966), Zurich (1974), and New York (1976, 1978). Dies 1967 in Paris.
+
1942 leaves Paris, finds refuge in [[Nice]] and enters the French Resistance (1943-1944). 1947 returns to painting. Wanting to "reintroduce the object", he makes still lives inspired by the French masters of the 17th century.
  
 +
Rediscovered by a French critic, Berlewi takes part in a major Paris show, ''Precursors of Abstract Art in Poland'' (1957). Suddenly appreciated again, he also has one-man shows in Berlin (1963, 1964), Paris (1965), Warsaw (1966), Zurich (1974), and New York (1976, 1978). Dies 1967 in Paris.
  
; Publications
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==Works==
* ''Typographica'' 9, 1964. 64 pages. Contents: Avant garde graphics in Poland between the two worlds wars; Henryk Berlewi and Mechano-faktura; Sunday photography; Crowns.
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<gallery>
* Magdalena Frankowska, Artur Frankowski, ''Berlewi'', 2010, 160 pages. (Polish) [http://moonblinx.de/shop/article_11/%22Berlewi%22.html?shop_param=cid%3D2&aid=11&] [http://scans.hebis.de/22/46/57/22465743_toc.pdf]
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File:Berlewi Henryk Kolo i kwadrat w przestrzeni Mechanofaktura.jpg|''Koło i kwadrat w przestrzeni. Mechano-faktura'', 1923.
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1924-27 Mechano Faktura.png|''Mechano-faktura'', 1923/27
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1923 Neo Faktur 23 gouache on paper 55x44cm.jpg|''Neo-Faktur 23'', 1923. Gouache on paper, 55x44 cm.
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1924 Mechano-faktura.jpg|''Konstrukcja mechanofakturowa'' [Mechano-faktura], 1924.
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1924 Composition In Red Black And White gouache on paper 98x81 cm.jpg|''Mechano-faktura bialo-czerwono-czarna'', 1924. Gouache on paper, 98x81 cm. Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz.
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1924 Kontrasty Mekanofakturowe.jpg|''Kontrasty Mekanofakturowe'', 1924
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1924 Mekano Faktura.jpg|Mechano-faktura'', 1924
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1924 Reklama Mechano cover.jpg|''Reklama Mechano'', 1924, cover
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1924 Reklama Mechano sample 1.jpg|''Reklama Mechano'', 1924, sample page
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1924 Reklama Mechano sample 2.jpg|''Reklama Mechano'', 1924, sample page
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1925 Wystawa Prac Mechano-Fakturowych w Salonie Automobilowym Austro-Daimler.jpg|Exhibition of the ''Mechano-faktura'' works at the Austro-Daimler Automobile Salon, 1925
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1931 Composition gouache on paper 61x48cm.jpg|''Composition'', 1931. Gouache on paper, 61x48 cm.
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1960s Composition 35x25.7cm.jpg|''Composition'', 1960s. 35x25,7cm.
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1962 Models Hotel Europe Warsaw photo by Edward Hartwig.jpg|''Models'', 1962. Baryt print, 36x27,8cm. Photo Edward Hartwig.
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1962 Models baryt print 36x27.8cm.png|''Models'', 1962. Baryt print, 36x27,8cm. Photo Edward Hartwig
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1962 Models baryt print 36x27.8cm.jpg|''Models'', 1962. Baryt print, 36x27,8cm. Photo Edward Hartwig
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1965 ca Mechano Faktura.jpg|''Mechano-faktura'', c1965
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File:Berlewi Henryk Mechanofaktura.jpg|''Mechano-faktura''
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File:Berlewi Henryk 1966 exhibition poster 68x48cm.jpg|Exhibition poster, 1966, 68x48 cm
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File:Berlewi Henryk Autoportret 38.3x31.5cm.jpg|Self-portrait, 38.3x31.5 cm
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File:Berlewi Henryk Mechanic Construction oil on canvas 46x61cm.jpg|''Mechanic Construction''. Oil on canvas, 46x61 cm
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</gallery>
  
; Misc
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==Writings==
 +
* ''Mechano-faktura'', intro. Aleksander Wat, Warsaw: Jazz, 1924, 15 pp; repr., Paris: Archives de l'art abstrait et de l'avant-garde internationale, 1962, 15 pp, facsimile edition of 500. Written between 1922-24. [http://primo.getty.edu/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=GRI&afterPDS=true&institution=01GRI&docId=GETTY_ALMA21123770160001551 Information about the manuscript draft], [http://books.google.com/books?id=-UrRTzxe2SAC&pg=PA143 Commentary] (Marek Bartelik, 2005). {{pl}}
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** [[Media:Berlewi_Henryk_1924_Mechano-Faktur.pdf|"Mechano-Faktur"]], ''Der Sturm'' 15:3 (September 1924), Berlin, pp 155-159, [http://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/cgi-bin/bluemtn?a=d&d=bmtnabg192409-01.2.11&e=-------en-20--1--txt-IN----- JPG]. {{de}}
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** trans. K.J. Michaelsen, in ''Henryk Berlewi'', New York: Helen Serger, La Boetie, in conjunction with Herve Alexandre, 1978, pp 11-14. {{en}}
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** "Mechano-Facture", in ''Between Worlds'', eds. Timothy O. Benson and Éva Forgács, MIT Press, 2002, pp 489-491. {{en}}
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* "Nieco o dawnej awangardzie", ''Życie Literackie'' 27 (7 July 1957), pp 5–7. {{pl}}
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* ''Henryk Berlewi malarstwo'', Zielena Gora: Salon Wystawowy, 1967. {{pl}}
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 +
==Catalogues==
 +
* ''Henryk Berlewi'', New York: Helen Serger, La Boetie, in conjunction with Herve Alexandre, 1978, 23 pp.
 +
 
 +
==Literature==
 +
; Books
 +
* Hubert Colleye, ''Henryk Berlewi, Poolsch schilder'', Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1937, 55 pp. {{nl}}
 +
* Magdalena Frankowska, Artur Frankowski, ''Berlewi'', 2010, 160 pp. [http://moonblinx.de/shop/article_11/%22Berlewi%22.html?shop_param=cid%3D2&aid=11&], [http://scans.hebis.de/22/46/57/22465743_toc.pdf TOC]. {{pl}}
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 +
; Articles
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* Eckhard Neumann, "Henryk Berlewi", ''Typographica'' 9 (Jun 1964), ed. Herbert Spencer, London: Lund Humphries. [http://www.modernism101.com/spencer_typographica_ns_09.php] {{en}}
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* Piotr Rudziński, "Awangardowa Twórczość Henryka Berlewiego", ''Biuletyn Historii Sztuki'' 2 (1977), pp 205–219. {{pl}}
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* Piotr Rudziński, "Awangardowa Twórczość Henryka Berlewiego Cz. II", ''Biuletyn Historii Sztuki'' 4 (1977), 376–387. {{pl}}
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* David Mazower, [http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/tmr/tmr09/tmr09005.htm "On Henryk Berlewi"], ''The Mendele Review'' 157 (19 Apr 2005). [http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/tmr/tmr09/tmr09006.htm Response by Seth L. Wolitz]. {{en}}
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* Agata Pietrasik, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140422025150/http://widok.ibl.waw.pl/index.php/one/article/view/64/141 "Re-Staging the Avant-garde: Henryk Berlewi’s Return to Abstract Art"], ''Widok'' 3 (2013); [http://www.perspectivia.net/publikationen/ownreality/8/pietrasik-en new version] in ''OwnReality'' 8 (2015). {{en}}
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* Lidia Głuchowska, [http://www.degruyter.com.sci-hub.tw/view/books/9783110317534/9783110317534.48/9783110317534.48.xml "From Abstract Film to Op Art and Kinetic Art? Henryk Berlewi's Mechano-Facture as a Transmedial Adaptation of Viking Eggeling's Experimental Films"], in ''The Aesthetics of Matter'', ed. Sarah Posman, et al., De Gruyter, 2013, pp 48-66. {{en}}
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 +
==Miscellaneous==
 
* FA Berlewi, a stencil type-face by Artur Frankowski based on poster lettering from 1924 by Berlewi, 2006. [http://cg.scs.carleton.ca/~luc/ArturFrankowski--BerlewiFA-2006.png] [http://cg.scs.carleton.ca/~luc/ArturFrankowski--BerlewiFA-2006b.gif]
 
* FA Berlewi, a stencil type-face by Artur Frankowski based on poster lettering from 1924 by Berlewi, 2006. [http://cg.scs.carleton.ca/~luc/ArturFrankowski--BerlewiFA-2006.png] [http://cg.scs.carleton.ca/~luc/ArturFrankowski--BerlewiFA-2006b.gif]
  
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==See also==
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* [[Poland#Constructivists]]
 +
 +
==Links==
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* [http://www.berlewi.com/ Henryk Berlewi Archive, Frankfurt am Main]
 +
* Irena Kossowska, [http://web.archive.org/web/20121001170018/http://www.culture.pl/baza-sztuki-pelna-tresc/-/eo_event_asset_publisher/eAN5/content/henryk-berlewi "Henryk Berlewi"], ''Culture.pl'', 2002. {{pl}}
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* [http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henryk_Berlewi Berlewi at Polish Wikipedia]
 +
* [http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Berlewi_Henryk Berlewi in The Yivo Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe]
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* [http://www.artmuseum.pl/filmoteka/?l=4&id=1341 Marcin Giżycki: Henryk Berlewi - Kinefaktura], 3'15", 2012.
  
[http://www.berlewi.com/ Henryk Berlewi Archive, Frankfurt am Main]<br>
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{{featured article}}
http://www.culture.pl/baza-sztuki-pelna-tresc/-/eo_event_asset_publisher/eAN5/content/henryk-berlewi<br>
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Berlewi, Henryk}}
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Berlewi_Henryk
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[[Category:Constructivism]]

Revision as of 14:48, 10 December 2017

Born October 20, 1894(1894-10-20)
Warsaw, Poland
Died August 2, 1967(1967-08-02) (aged 72)
Paris, France
Mechano-faktura exhibition held in an automobile salon of Austro-Daimler in Warsaw, 1924.

Henryk Berlewi (1894–1967) was a Polish Jewish painter, graphic designer and art theorist. Berlewi is primarily remembered as an abstract artist who paved the way for optical art, but he was also an important figure in Yiddish book design and typography in the early 1920s.

Biography

Born 1894 in Warsaw to an assimilated Polish Jewish family. Supported by his mother, he studies fine arts in Warsaw (1904–1909), and later at the fine arts academies in Antwerp (1909–1910), and Paris (1911–1912), returning to Warsaw in 1913 to study at the school of design. During World War I, he discovers futurism and Dada and in 1918 meets the futurist Aleksander Wat and the formist Anatol Stern, Jews whose Polish-language verse he later illustrated.

1920 attends El Lissitzky's lecture in Warsaw, for Berlewi a decisive encounter to move to Berlin, where in 1922–1923 he abandons figurative art for pure constructivist abstraction. 1922 participates at the Novembergruppe exhibition. Along with Adler he is chosen to represent Jewish artists from Eastern Europe at the Congress of International Progressive Artists. Meets El Lissitzky, Viking Eggeling (to whom Berlewi devoted article published in 'Albatross' in 1922), and many others (Moholy-Nagy, van Doesburg, Richter, van der Rohe). May-Sep 1923 presents his first Mechano-Faktura compositions in the Novembergruppe section of the Grosse Berliner Kunstaustellung.

November 1923 returns to Warsaw. With Strzeminski founds a constructivist group Blok. In his review of the exhibition which accompanied the Congress in Düsseldorf, published in Nasz Kurier, he states that expressionism is obsolete and was replaced by Novembergruppe's dada and by constructivism. March 1924 publishes his theoretical tract being written since 1922, Mechano-Faktura (using mechanical means to create texture), prefaced by the writer Alexander Wat; its basic premise rejects the illusion of space in favor of two-dimensionality; color is reduced to black, white, and red, and visual equivalents of images are accomplished by mechanical means using rhythmic arrangements of lines and simple geometrical forms such as circles and squares. Along with the publication he organises the first mechanofaktura exhibition at the Austro-Daimler Automobile Salon. Summer 1924, invited by Herwarth Walden, founder of the Der Sturm magazine and gallery, to exhibit his mechanofaktura works in Berlin; the German version of his manifesto gets published. 1924 establishes Reklama-Mechano advertising agency with Wat and Stanisław Brucz, that—among its rare realizations—worked on the Plutos chocolate brochure.

1926 he quits his research and returns to figurative art and works as a set designer. 1927 settles in Paris, as did other Polish and Jewish artists. 1928-1938 travels through Belgium and does a few portraits of the political and literary world. At that time, learns that he is seriously ill, and stops the artistic activity whatsoever.

1942 leaves Paris, finds refuge in Nice and enters the French Resistance (1943-1944). 1947 returns to painting. Wanting to "reintroduce the object", he makes still lives inspired by the French masters of the 17th century.

Rediscovered by a French critic, Berlewi takes part in a major Paris show, Precursors of Abstract Art in Poland (1957). Suddenly appreciated again, he also has one-man shows in Berlin (1963, 1964), Paris (1965), Warsaw (1966), Zurich (1974), and New York (1976, 1978). Dies 1967 in Paris.

Works

Writings

  • Mechano-faktura, intro. Aleksander Wat, Warsaw: Jazz, 1924, 15 pp; repr., Paris: Archives de l'art abstrait et de l'avant-garde internationale, 1962, 15 pp, facsimile edition of 500. Written between 1922-24. Information about the manuscript draft, Commentary (Marek Bartelik, 2005). (Polish)
    • "Mechano-Faktur", Der Sturm 15:3 (September 1924), Berlin, pp 155-159, JPG. (German)
    • trans. K.J. Michaelsen, in Henryk Berlewi, New York: Helen Serger, La Boetie, in conjunction with Herve Alexandre, 1978, pp 11-14. (English)
    • "Mechano-Facture", in Between Worlds, eds. Timothy O. Benson and Éva Forgács, MIT Press, 2002, pp 489-491. (English)
  • "Nieco o dawnej awangardzie", Życie Literackie 27 (7 July 1957), pp 5–7. (Polish)
  • Henryk Berlewi malarstwo, Zielena Gora: Salon Wystawowy, 1967. (Polish)

Catalogues

  • Henryk Berlewi, New York: Helen Serger, La Boetie, in conjunction with Herve Alexandre, 1978, 23 pp.

Literature

Books
  • Hubert Colleye, Henryk Berlewi, Poolsch schilder, Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1937, 55 pp. (Dutch)
  • Magdalena Frankowska, Artur Frankowski, Berlewi, 2010, 160 pp. [1], TOC. (Polish)
Articles

Miscellaneous

  • FA Berlewi, a stencil type-face by Artur Frankowski based on poster lettering from 1924 by Berlewi, 2006. [3] [4]

See also

Links