Premiere of Wojciech Fangor Archive

We invite you to visit the digital archive of Wojciech Fangor, which has been available online since the anniversary of the artist’s birth centenary on 15 November 2022. The collection of over 8,500 objects has been compiled by Maciej Harland-Parzydło. The premiere of the artist’s digital archive will be accompanied by a meeting organised in collaboration with Studio Theatre and Studio Gallery, during which Fangor’s last work – the monumental metal sculpture “MSzN” – will be on view for the first time.

Wojciech Fangor Archive documents almost the entire life of the artist. Presented on the artmuseum.pl website, the archive makes it possible to see, for the first time, photographs of the artist’s studios located all over the world: from Janówka, through Vienna, Paris, Berlin, London, to Madison, New York, Summit, Santa Fe and Błędów; it also provides an insight into the creative process and deep theoretical reflection of Wojciech Fangor. It documents the artist’s private life – childhood and youth, acquaintances, friendships and his relationship with his wife.

The documents and objects donated to the MSN were compiled by researcher Maciej Harland-Parzydło. The archive is divided into several parts. In “Autonomous Works/Commissioned Works”, in addition to archival material relating to realisations in the field of exhibition architecture and monumental painting, we can see photographic documentation and drawings for spatial works, such as the monumental mosaic for Jerusalem.
“Projects” covers Fangor’s activities as a theatre set designer, librettist, photographer, astronomer, animator and innovator. “Exhibitions” presents Fangor’s key decade of the 1960s, when he became an artist of international status, including the Op Art movement-integrating exhibition The Responsive Eye at the Museum of Modern Art and the monographic exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and includes invitations, catalogues and photographic documentation of the exhibitions.
“Photographs” and “Correspondence” reveal both the spaces of artistic life and the behind-the-scenes of Fangor’s everyday life, who functioned in a network of professional and social-private relationships with artists such as Josef Albers, Jan Lenica, Jerzy Sołtan, Alina Szapocznikow, Henryk Tomaszewski; curators: Thomas Messer, William Seitz, Clement Greenberg, Peter Selz, Willem Sandberg, Udo Kulterman; collectors and gallerists Beatrice Perry, Rudolf Springer, Joseph Slater, Ewa Pape, Artur Lejwa; and academics Edward T. Hall and Jan Mycielski.
A significant role in the artist’s life had his wife, also an artist, Magdalena Fangor, with whom he had a tender relationship and creative partnership. The section devoted to her presents the artist’s private photographs, drawings and letters dedicated to her.

Wojciech Fangor Archive will be available from November 15, 2022 on the website artmuseum.pl in the Resources / Artists Archives tab.