Chronology
1922
15 November
Wojciech Bonawentura Fangor was born in Warsaw to a family of a wealthy businessman. His father, Konrad, was an engineer, a founder of Polskie Towarzystwo Techniczne dla Handlu i PrzemysĆu POLTHAP [Polish Technical Society for Trade and Industry] in Warsaw. His mother, Wanda, nee Chachlowska, came from Krakow and was a pianist by training. Wojciech spent his childhood days with his two older sisters, Krystyna and Anna. The Fangor family lived in Warsawâinitially in a house at 25 Nowowiejska Street, and as of 1927 in a villa at 2 Chocimska Street. From 1929, they spent their holidays and weekends in JanĂłwek manor house at Klarysew near Warsaw.
1931
Initially, until the age of nine, Wojciech was taught at home by governesses and private tutors. He began his formal education at the private primary school run by the Towarzystwo SzkoĆy Mazowieckiej, subsequently attended the Edward Rontaler School and, from 1934, the MikoĆaj Rey Gymnasium.
During his school years, he devoted himself mainly to drawing and mathematics. His interest in astronomy developed into a lifelong passion. He observed the sky on his ownâinitially using a self-built telescope, and later professional instruments.
His mother supported her son’s interests from his earliest years and looked after his artistic education. She took him to the exhibitions and studios of well-known artists such as Wojciech Kossak in Warsaw, and Wojciech Brzega and Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz in Zakopane. His parents took him along on trips abroad and he had a chance to see Pablo Picasso’s painting Guernica at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1937.
1933
In 1933, after returning from a short stay in the French Riviera, during which Wojciech painted a dozen or so paintings, his mother asked a professor from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Tadeusz Pruszkowski, for help in her son’s further education. It was following his recommendation that in 1934 she engaged the student Tadeusz Kozlowski to teach Wojciech drawing and painting. Wojciech made friends with his teacher and they made many artistic voyages together, such as to Venice and Florence in 1936 and to Rome and Naples in 1937.
1939
1 September
When the German army entered Poland, Wojciech drove himself and his father to Bucharest, and from there, a couple of days later, to Budapest. After a month, Wojciech returned through the Carpathian Mountains to Klarysew on his own.
1940
During the occupation, he passed his final school examinations as a part of the underground education at the private secondary school run by the Zgromadzenie KupcĂłw miasta Warszawy. The Fangors were evicted by the German occupants from their villa at Chocimska Street and moved in to Malczewskiego Street. Wojciech worked in his father’s company, which dealt with the collection of non-ferrous scrap metal.
1941
He studied painting under professor Tadeusz Pruszkowski, who was a friend of the Fangor family, spent his weekends in Klarysew and gave Wojciech lessons in the flat at Malczewskiego street on a weekly basis.
1942
June
The tragic death of Tadeusz Pruszkowski, who was murdered by the German occupants, and Wojciech’s traumatic experience during a roundup and his escape from a shooting execution, made him leave for Klarysew.
At this time, he created landscapes, still lifes, self-portraits and portraits of his dear ones.
1943
In the spring, Professor Felicjan SzczÄsny Kowarski, who taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw before the war, moved in to JanĂłwek at Fangor’s invitation. The Professor gave Wojciech painting and sculpture lessons in exchange for a safe place to live in the country.
November
Wojciech painted a monumental mythological scene in Rococo style, presenting the Pleiades, on the plafond of the drawing room of the manor house in Klarysew, under the careful eye of Felicjan SzczÄsny Kowarski. The house, now called âFangorĂłwka’, is currently located on the grounds of the Botanical Garden of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Powsin and plays the role of an art gallery.
1944
End of July
Having heard about the planned Warsaw Uprising, Wojciech went to Rabka together with Krystyna Machnicka, a musicologist, who gave him piano lessons. It was there that the two of them were arrested by the occupants and transported to TarnĂłw for forced labor involving the digging of anti-tank trenches. After two weeks, they managed to escape and return to Rabka. Fangor was employed in a German military hospitalâinitially assisting in the removal of rubbish and carrying the injured and the dead, and subsequently, until the end of the occupation, in the hospital pharmacy.
22 October
Wojciech Fangor and Zofia Krystyna Machnicka married in Rabka.
1945
In the spring, the Fangors returned to Klarysew and lived with their family in neighboring GronĂłwek.
17 November
Roman, the Fangors’ son, was born in Warsaw. At this time Wojciech was earning his living driving people and goods in his lorry.
1946
5 December
On the basis of the paintings he presented, created under the guidance of Professors Pruszkowski and Kowarski, and having passed his history of art examination for which he was preparing himself under Professor Michal Walicki, Wojciech received a diploma in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw on an extramural basis. At this time, the artist made many sketches of his close family and acquaintances as well as landscapes in pencil and ink.
1948
The Military Court sentenced the artist’s father to death for economic sabotage. The process was political. Owing to the efforts of the family and a well-known lawyer, Mieczyslaw Maslanka, the penalty was replaced with lifetime imprisonment in 1949. In 1956, on the wave of the thaw and owing to Wojciech Fangor’s intercession addressed to JĂłzef Cyrankiewicz, his father was released from prison.
Fangor began to paint large-scale propaganda works. In April, together with Tadeusz Kozlowski, he made panels promoting the socialist economy and agriculture during the Poznan International Fair. Towards the end of the year, he made a panel presenting marching workers for the Unification Congress of the Polish Socialist Party and the Polish Workers’ Party in the building at Aleje Ujazdowskie in Warsaw.
1949
May
Wojciech Fangor’s first solo exhibition of paintings was held at the Club of Young Artists and Scientists in Warsaw. At the invitation of Marian Bogusz, the artist showed his paintings from the two previous years: landscapes, portraits of his dear ones and historical figures, as well as two painted gypsum sculptures: The Moon and Sorrowful Head.
His debut went entirely unnoticedâthere was not a single review in the press. Only several years later did Janusz Bogucki and Jerzy Stajuda publish their recollections of the exhibition:
âWojciech Fangorâs painting debut covering his works dating to 1948 and 1949 was marked by a visible impact of the tradition of cubist painting. His tendencies for synthetic treatment of the form and monumentalisation of the figures will be developed in his future works. In his canvases, we can feel some clumsiness, but also freshness, dynamics, and finally a pursuit for plain, clear, unambiguous solutions. It is also in his choice of topics that Fangor tries â in line with the tendencies in force at the club of young artists and scientists â to underline the social role of art. This is the origin of his portraits of Chopin, Copernicus, Lenin or Ensteinâ. (Jerzy Stajuda)
1950
The artist participated in three group exhibitions presenting the realization of the prerequisites of socialist realism, which had been announced in Poland in 1949. During the â111 National Exhibition of Artâ in the National Museum in Warsaw (MarchApril), he showed the paintings âLiberationâ (1949) and âBricklayersâ (1950). During the â2nd Exhibition of Portraits of Leaders of Work and Rationalizersâ (21 Julyâ15 August), Fangor presented a drawing depicting a female leader of studying. His painting âFight for Peaceâ (1950) was awarded the 3rd prize at the exhibition âVisual Artists in Their Fight for Peaceâ (November-December) in the Central Bureau of Artistic Exhibitions (CBWA) in ZachÄta. The presented works were very well received by important art critics.
From 1950 he designed political and film posters for Wydawnictwo Artystyczno-Graficzne (WAG) and Centrala Wynajmu FilmĂłw (CWF). He was a member of the Artistic Commission of the Propaganda Department of CWF, which was to evaluate the submitted posters. He co-created the Polish Poster School, collaborating with, inter alia, Henryk Tomaszewski and Wojciech Zamecznik.
In this period, Wojdech designed more than 90 posters, which were presented at many exhibitions and competitions in Poland and internationally, abroad. At the same time, he was an illustrator of the newspaper âĆ»ycie Warszawyâ and the weeklies âNowa Kulturaâ and âPrzeglqd Kulturalnyâ.
1951
30 Aprilâ10 June
During the âExhibition of Painting, Sculpture, Graphic Arts, Interior Design and Decorative Arts of the Warsaw Division of the Association of Polish Artists and Designersâ, held in the ZachÄta gallery, he showed his painting âStill Lifeâ (1944).
December 1951- February 1952
He participated in the â2nd National Art Exhibitionâ in CBWA, and was awarded the second prize for his paintings âLenin in Poroninâ (1951) and âKorean Motherâ (1951). Both of them were acclaimed by critics of the time. Juliusz StarzyĆski underlined the pathos and emotional impact of the painting âKorean Motherâ:
âFrom among our painters, probably only Wojciech Fangor endeavors to reflect a full dramatic expression of the theme of the fight for peace. We can remember his works shown at the exhibition âArtist in the fight for peaceâ. The same painting and power of emotional action are even more strongly depicted in the painting âKorean motherâ at the last exhibition. In this painting, we do not know whether intentionally or unintentionally â he opted out of a suggestive use of colour, keeping the entire composition in a grey, depressing monochromatism. Nevertheless, the sight of the helpless little hands of the orphaned Korean child and the tragic expression on his prematurely mature face will remain in the viewerâs consciousness for a long time to come â as a condemnation of the imperialist war criminalsâ. (Janusz StarzyĆski)
1952
December 1952âFebruary 1953
He took part in the â3rd National Exhibition of Artâ in CBWA, during which he exhibited yet another portrait of Lenin (1951).
1953
June
Together with Tadeusz Trepkowski and Henryk Tomaszewski, the artist was awarded one of the three first prizes during the â1st National Poster Exhibitionâ at CBWA. During the event, he presented, inter alia, such posters as âKeep the State Secret!â (1951), âThe Walls of Malapagaâ (1952) and âAt the Bottomâ (1952), as well as the poster he designed together with Jerzy TchĂłrzewski for the â4th World Festival of Youth and Students in Bucharestâ (1953).
1954
1 February
Owing to recommendations of Professors Artur Nacht-Samborski and JĂłzef Mroszczak, he was employed by the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw as a lecturer of painting and drawing.
22 Mayâ7 June
The Foire de Paris (Paris Fair). He cooperated with Stanislaw Zamecznik in the creation of the exhibition, and was the author of, inter alia, a painted frieze, âConstruction Siteâ, showing labourers at work. At the time, Zamecznik also entrusted him with the execution of a polychrome in the Museum of Warsaw, for which he was preparing an interior decoration design. Fangor painted a scene âForging the Scythesâ referring to the events of the January Uprising. However, the work was not acclaimed by the then-director of the National Museum in Warsaw, Professor Stanislaw Lorentz, in view of which Zamecznik decided to cover it with a wall. In this way, the work has survived and was discovered during the renovation of the museum in 2013.
Since 1954 he participated in a competition for a design of the Start Sports Complex, the future Warszawianka, with a team of artists from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw: Jerzy SoĆtan, Zbigniew Ihnatowicz, Franciszek Strynkiewicz and Lech Tomaszewski. The artist participated in consultations concerning the colour scheme for the fir t two tage of the design works and made panels illustrating the design assumptions.
1955
30 Aprilâ16 May
He participated in the group exhibition presenting the Polish poster âL’Affichep polonaise/ Poolse afficheâ at Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.
31 Juneâ14 July
The World Festival of Youth and Students in Warsaw. Together with Henryk Tomaszewski, Fangor designed a multicolour, 400 meters long frieze along MarszaĆkowska Street, presenting the greetings of youth from various countries among abstract and geometrical figures. He also made a copy of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica as a part of the action âWe Demand a Ban on Atomic Weaponsâ in an architectural setting designed by Jerzy Hryniewiecki. He placed a large-format canvas with a painted face of a woman which resembled the face from the future poster âDays of Auschwitzâ (1959) on the facade of one of the houses by the Old Town Market Square. The festival was also accompanied by a poster which Fangor designed together with Jerzy TchĂłrzewski in 1954.
September
Together with, inter alia, Henryk Tomaszewski and Wojciech Zamecznik, the artist travelled to Albania for an outdoor painting workshop organized by the ZwiÄ
zek ArtystĂłw PlastykĂłw. A series of drawings from this trip was published in the âPrzeglqd Kulturalnyâ No. 46 in 1955. Jointly with Jerzy TchĂłrzewski, he designed a mosaic frieze above the entry to the Central Department Store in Warsaw. Considered innovative and harmonized with the architectural content, the work nevertheless has never been implemented.
1956
January
The artist received the academic title of a docent [‘associate professor’] from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
26 March
A competition for the Polish Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair was announced. The winning design was submitted by a team from the Artistic Research Unit of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw with Jerzy Soltan, Zbigniew Ihnatowicz and Lech Tomaszewski. Fangor designed the decoration for a wavy curtain wall of the pavilion, which was to be covered with an abstract painting on the outside and a painting inspired by children’s works on set topics related to the history of the Polish People’s Republic on the inside. The design has never been carried out, but panels illustrating its assumptions have managed to survive.
27 Octoberâ10 November
At the exhibition âDix peintres polonaisâ in Galerie Georges Giroux in Brussels, he showed several cubism-inspired paintings from the last two years.
1957
18 Octoberâ17 December
He participated in the 2nd Modem Art Exhibition in CBWA. Jointly with Oskar Hansen and Stanislaw Zamecznik, he executed a site-specific installation entitled âStudy of Spaceâ. Suspended under the ceiling of the gallery, sheets of bent black hardboard led the visitors from the entry through the hall and the main stairs to the Matejko Room on the first floor, where there was a bent hardboard in white colour on the floor. The simple, crude forms of the boards contrasted with the historical interior of ZachÄta and at the same time connected the inside with the outside.
As a result of his teamwork with architects and designers, and his experience in the area of poster graphics, the artist continued to develop an interest in spatial matters and the possibility of translating it into the language of painting. It was at this time that his first edgeless paintings were created. Years later, he wrote:
âIn 1957, I discovered a method of evoking an illusion of space, which activates itself outside the painting between the surface of the canvas and the viewer. This method was based on a constant edgeless flow of one colour into another. The unbroken flow of the colour or value without a sharp boundary has been commonly used at least since the renaissance, but this function was closely connected with the definition of a structure with the light on one side and shadow on the other […] The edgeless flow of one colour into another gives an illusion of space specifically stretching from the plane of the painting towards the viewer. I called the phenomenon an illusory positive space â in contrast to the illusory negative space extending into the depth of the paintingâ (Wojciech Fangor, 2002)
1958
28-30 March
A presentation of submissions for a competition for a Monument to the Heroes of Warsaw was held at the CBWA. Fangor was a member of the team of Oskar Hansen, Zofia Hansen, Jan Krzysztof Meisner, Lechoslaw Rosinski and Lech Tomaszewski. The design reflected the assumptions of a non- -obelisk monument harmonising with the space of the city, with a terrace opened up to the escarpment by the river Vistula. The design was awarded, but has never been executed.
31 July
An exhibition Wojciech Fangor âStudy of Spaceâ was opened in the Salon Nowej Kultury in the foyer of the Jewish Theatre at KrĂłlewska Street in Warsaw. Together with Stanislaw Zamecznik, they created a spatial installation composed of Fangor’s twenty abstract paintings, most of which were shown on wooden racks in the center of the room, and four on the walls. At the time, the exhibition was not acclaimed by the critics. It was only many years later that it was referred to as a pioneering work of environmental art. Several days after it was opened, Fangor displayed his own text by the entry to the exhibition:
âThis exhibition aims at showing the spatial relationships between paintings. I am not interested in what is happening inside individual paintings, but in what is taking place between them. The paintings are anonymous parts of a totality, which begins to fulfil itself in real space. The viewer, taking a path among this group of paintings, automatically becomes a co-creator of the workâ
Fangor partially reconstructed âStudy of Spaceâ during some of his subsequent exhibitions, which took place in ZachÄta (1990) and the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw (2003), as well as in the Museum of Art in ĆĂłdĆș (2008) and the National Museum in Krakow (2012).
1959
Wojciech Fangor and Henryk Tomaszewski received the first prize in a competition for a poster âThe 3rd Congress of the Polish United Workers’ Party. March 1959. Socialism Shall Win.â
2 Octoberâ2 November
A group exhibition âPoolse Schilderkunstâ was held in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. At the invitation of director Wilem Sandberg, Fangor with Stanislaw Zamecznik created the spatial installation âColour in Spaceâ in a separate room. Geometrical objects were arranged on the floor or suspended in the air. Bent boards and spatial forms made from boards connected with hinges created zones of colours: the red, the black, and the blue. A cylinder with Fangor’s two abstract paintings inside, which could only be viewed from the top, was a separate object.
The artists commented on the exhibition the following year in their Manifesto, which summed up their reflections and experience related to the exhibitions and spatial installations they designed:
âThis time, we decided to try in particular the effect of colour in space. The installation was composed of elements saturated with the colours red, black and black. A cycle of events to be perceived in time along a predetermined path was also planned. This path was meandering through constant confrontations of colours and forms kept in the memory with ones which followed, creating new layers of recollections. This caused a surprisingly different perception of the same colours and forms as a result of the adventures experienced in time and space.â (Wojciech Fangor, StanisĆaw Zamecznik)
1960
June
Wojciech met Beatrice G. Perry, a co-owner and head of the Gres Gallery in Washington, who came to Warsaw to select works for an exhibition of Polish painting and sculpture.
November
The artist took up the position of the dean of the Graphic Arts Faculty of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. As a member of the team with Jerzy SoĆtan and Zbigniew Ihnatowicz of the Artistic Research Unit of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Fangor took part in designing the interior of the building of the railway station Warszawa SrĂłdmiescie. He designed mosaics in lit wall niches, which, depending on the speed of the train, made passengers see different optical effects. In subsequent years, Fangor collaborated with Jerzy SoĆtan on numerous occasions in the area of colour consultations, inter alia for designs of schools in Brockton (1975) and Lynn (1977) in Massachusetts, and for the âTheoretical Church Designâ (1992).
1961
He was awarded the first prize for his design of the Victory Room in the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw. The design of this exhibition was exceptional in Fangor’s career since it encompassed the use of sound effects. Steel panels of various size and thickness, all painted black, were to be hung under the ceiling in a room of regular dimensions. The little hammers mounted on them would emit sounds reflecting the atmosphere of the room and the sounds made by weapons during fighting. Banners were to be exposed in a row along another wall. Showcases with exhibits were to be placed in the middle, and a light circle with diffused edges was to be a backdrop for information on the exhibition displayed by a projector on yet another grey wall. Due to the competition being cancelled, the design has never been executed.
April
During the âInternational Labour Exhibitionâ in Turin, he made a monumental graphic work on safety at work in the Polish Pavilion designed by Wojciech Zamecznik in cooperation with JĂłzef Mroszczak, Julian Palka, Henryk Tomaszewski, Jan Lenica and Roman Husarski.
18 Aprilâ13 May
He participated in The First Exhibition in America of âContemporary Polish Paintings and Sculptureâ at the Gres Gallery in Washington, prepared by Beatrice C. Perry. The event was curated by Ryszard StanisĆawski, who selected Fangor’s two paintings which were exhibited earlier as a part of the âStudy of Spaceâ (1958).
July
He went to Austria and settled down in Vienna. In September, he took a leave from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and moved to his sister’s, Krystyna Schindler, in Krumpendorf by Worthersee. He was soon joined by Magdalena Patkowska, nĂ©e Shummer, an art historian and painter, who would later become his wife.
20 Julyâ30 October
As a part of the Poster Exhibition from the cycle Polish Art for the 15’h Anniversary of the Polish People’s Republic, together with Stanislaw Zamecznik, he made an installation in front of the building of ZachÄta in Warsaw. The installation was composed of more than three meters tall, quadrilateral pillars with slightly concave walls, painted white, grey and orange. Walking between them, the viewers could feel the space owing to the colours and scale of the project. For this work, Fangor received the Award of the Minister of Culture and Art.
1 Augustâ11 October
The artist took part in the exhibition â15 Polish Painters in the Museum of Modem Artâ in New York, curated by Peter Selz. The show presented a selection of paintings of the most important avant-garde artists. It was organized in cooperation inter alia with the Gres Gallery in Washington and the Galerie Chalette in New York.
1962
March
He travelled to Washington at the invitation of the Institute of Contemporary Art. He visited American universities and art schools, giving lectures on spatial art and presenting his works. During his stay in New York, he met important art critics and curators such as Clement Greenberg and William Rubin.
April
Fangor’s solo exhibition was held at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Washington as an event accompanying the âFourth Annual Congressâ, during which the artist also gave a lecture entitled âAmerican Style & European Paintingâ. Fangor concluded an agreement with Beatrice G. Perry, under which he was provided a regular salary for showing thirty paintings a year at the Gres Gallery. It was owing to this arrangement that he was able to move to France, where he lived in the studio at pl. Jules Ferry 44 in Montrouge by Paris. At the time, he had close relations with some Polish artists living in Paris, including Jan Lenica, Alina Szapocznikow and Roman Cieslewicz.
1963
26 Januaryâ17 February
Collective works created over the previous couple of years in the Artistic Research Unit of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, such as designs for Expo 58 in Brussels and the Start Sports Complex in Warsaw, as well as documentation of Fangor and Zamecznik’s installation in front of the building of ZachÄta from 1961, were shown at the Exhibition of Applied Arts from the cycle âPolish Art on the 15’h Anniversary of the Polish People’s Republicâ at the CBWA.
December
He participated in the âRencontre internationale des artistesâ at the Musee des Oudaias in Rabat.
1964
10 Januaryâ10 February
The artist participated in the poster exhibition âVenti anni di manifesto artistico polacco modernoâ at the Calcografia Nazionale in Rome.
26 Januaryâ29 March
Curator Lawrence Alloway displayed Fangor’s painting âBlack Waveâ (1961) at the group exhibition Guggenheim International Award in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
5â29 February
Fangor’s solo exhibition was organized at the Galerie Lambert in Paris. In the small space of the gallery, on one of the walls, Fangor made an installation from his abstract paintings created in 1963. He arranged ten paintings of equal size in two rows, one by one, with the upper row, reaching the ceiling, tilted from the top to the floor by 35 degrees.
12 Juneâ19 July
Fangor’s solo exhibition was held at the Stadtisches Museum Leverkusen Schlosss Morsbroich. At the invitation of director Udo Kultermann, Fangor made an installation from his abstract paintings created in 1963 and 1964. It was for the first time that he showed pre-pressed structures made from curved hardboard painted white, blue, green and red. They were installed in a park. In the introduction to the catalogue of the exhibition, Udo Kultermann wrote:
âFangor belongs to the few artists in the world for whom the traditionally determined boundaries between architecture, sculpture and painting are no longer in place. His work in an important, not yet known in Germany, contribution to the basic. New discussion on spatio-artistic relations. The structures created for the exhibition in Park Morsbroich, as well as the exhibition of paintings, designed accord to the artistâs guidance in museum space, are important manifestos, which should be closely studies both by artists and commissioners in the area of architecture and artistic integration in Germanyâ.
The same year, the artist received a grant from the Ford Foundation, which enabled him to live and create in Berlin.
1965
23 Februaryâ25 April
A pioneering exhibition presenting world kinetic art and op-art âThe Responsive Eyeâ was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. As part of it, curator William C. Seitz, who saw Fangor’s exhibition at the Galerie Lambert in Paris, showed his painting âN 17â from 1963. Later the same year, the exhibition was also presented at the City Art Museum of St. Louis (20 Mayâ20 June 1965), Seattle Art Museum (15 Juneâ23 August 1965), Pasadena Art Museum (25 Septemberâ7 October 1965) and Baltimore Museum of Art (14 Decemberâ23 January 1966).
24 Aprilâ14 May
A solo exhibition was staged at the Galerie Wilm Falazik in BochumâFagor also designed a poster with his signature for it.
26 Juneâ26 July
The artist participated in the exhibition âWojciech Fangor, Ruth Francken, Gerard Koch, Mercedes Kruschewsky. 2 Maler + 2 Bildhauer als GĂ€ste der Ford Foundation in Berlinâ at the Amerika Haus in Berlin, where he presented a spatial composition composed of three free-standing, painted, pre-pressed structures and three spatial paintings with openings in the curved hardboards monochromatically painted in primary colours.
31 Julyâ31 August
He participated in International Artists’ Seminar 1965: Optical Art Symposium in Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. The accompanying exhibition was also presented at the Riverside Museum in New York (26 Septemberâ7 November).
October
Fangor’s solo exhibition with his paintings dating to 1963-1965 was held at the Galerie Springer in Berlin.
17 October
The artist married Magdalena Patkowska in Warsaw. In the autumn, owing to a recommendation of painter William Scott, he was employed for six months as a teacher of painting in the Bath Academy of Art in Corsham, Wiltshire, UK. Several days a week, he painted in London, in a studio Stefan Knapp made available to him. He entitled the paintings created during this time âEâ for England, in contrast to the ones painted earlier, in Berlin, entitled âBâ.
1966
The artist showed paintings created in the years 1963-1965 during several solo exhibitions in Germany: in Wiirttembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart (6 Februaryâ6 March), Galerie Leonhart in Munich (6 Julyâ27 August) and Dom Galerie in Cologne (9 Septemberâ22 October).
29 Marchâ22 April
His solo exhibition was held at the London-based Grabowski Gallery run by Mateusz Grabowski, an art lover and collector promoting mainly the art of British artists of the younger generation.
6 Aprilâ12 June
The artist took part in the exhibition Recent Acquisitions at the Museum of Modem Art in New York
June
He was granted an immigration visa to the USA.
1 September
He was employed with the Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey, as a profesor of painting, and continued to work there until 1983. He took up residence in a building formerly housing a theatre, which he converted into his house and studio. He commenced cooperation with the Galerie Chalette in New York, run by the married couple Madeleine Chalette and Arthur Lejwa.
1967
March-May
During his first solo exhibition at the Galerie Chalette in New York, the artist presented not only his paintings from recent years, but also a model of an installation of wavy, self-supporting walls and âMobius Stripâ (1966) made from glued wooden slats.
28 Juneâ24 September
His work was shown at the exhibition âThe 1960s: Painting & Sculpture from the Museum Collectionâ at the Museum of Modem Art in New York.
27 October 1967â7 January 1968
The artist participated in the âPittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculptureâ the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, where he showed three pre-pressed structures. They were he showed three pre-pressed structures. They were he showed three pre-pressed structures. They were and concave structures organized space through their form and colour.
Since 1967, Fangor taught painting and graphic arts at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1968
13 Aprilâ30 June
The painting E 10 (1966) was shown at the exhibition âL’art vivant 1965-1968″ at the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France.
18 Juneâ28 September
He participated in the 100 the Exhibition at the Grabowski Gallery in London.
22 Juneâ20 October
His painting âNJ 15â (1964) was exhibited at the âLinee della ricerca: dall’informale alle nuove struttureâ during the 34th Venice Biennale.
1969
25 Januaryâ1 March
Fangor’s solo exhibition featuring a model of a monument for Jerusalem (1968) was held at the Galerie Chalette in New York. Under the project, self-supporting curtain structures were to be made from thin concrete walls covered with glass mosaic in colours edgelessly transforming from white to blue. Despite advanced technological preparations, the project has not been executed.
The Fangors bought a farm in Lutheranville near Summit, New York. They lived in Madison during the winter months, and in the country in the summer.
The artist signed his paintings depending on the place in which they were finished: most often âMâ or âMAâ for Madison, âSUâ for Summit or âSMâ for both these places, and added subsequent numbers in the following years.
November
He participated in a group exhibition âFour New Jersey Artists: Fangor, Leon Kelly, Anthony Padovano, Esteban Vincente, presenting works of artists from the region at the Newark Museum.
1970
7 Februaryâ1 April
The third solo exhibition at the Galerie Chalette in New York was held. A reviewer from the New York Times wrote about it in the following way:
âHe is the great romantic of pop art, working not by rule but by a combination of intuition and experiment, appealing not to reason but to our yearning toward the mysterious. As the purely visual novelty wears off, the optical trick turns out to have been more than a trick after all, and is revealed as a portal opening on to new experiences of color in spaceâ (John Canaday)
19 Marchâ30 April
He presented paintings at the âBerliner Kunstlerprogramm Ausstellung Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienstâ in the Goethe Institut in Berlin.
4 May-7July
He participated in the exhibition âAmerican Painting 1970â, curated by Peter Selz, at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.
27 Septemberâ25 October
The artist took part in the exhibition âColor: Theme and Variationsâ at the Morris Museum of Art and Sciences in Moristown, New Jersey.
30 October 1970â10 January 1971
He participated in the âPittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Artâ at the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, in Pittsburgh.
16 November 1970â10 January 1971
He took part in the exhibition âExcellenceâ, curated by Peter Selz, at the Berkeley Art Museum.
18 December 1970â31 January 1971
His solo exhibition was held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and was subsequently shown at the Modem Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas (4 Aprilâ9 May) and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley University (6 Julyâ22 August).
The exhibition presented paintings from the years 1965-1970, mostly large-format canvases displaying abstract figures pulsating with colour, which matched the space of the interior of the building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Magdalena Dabrowski described the event as follows:
âThe spiral form of Guggenheimâs ramps seemed to be made for the exhibition of his works. The architecture and the paintings fitted one another organically. Hence, the eye of the viewer standing in the center of the main rotunda on the ground floor glided down the vibrating colourful spaces of the ramps, arranged on different levels. Creating a sense of an interior filled with various vibrating colours […]. The colour and the space permuted each other sometimes delicately, and sometimes aggressively, creating unexpected effectsâ.
The exhibition was acclaimed by the public and critics alike:
âHis paintings might be classified as being both optical and color-field, but this is hardly adequate in describing their total effect. In point of fact, the works is an extraordinary exploration into the properties of colour, light and space, which in his hands turn into violently hypnotic and mesmerizing experiments. The achievement lies in Fangorâs uncanny ability to make his colour pulsate ways that make it almost painful to look at. The soft-focus vibrations that impinge themselves on the eye cause his colours to dissolve and move with a heavy force toward alternate areas of any given canvas. The resulting shifts of space and light are, as stated, blinding. But once used to the effect, the eye adjusts to the basic harmonic structure of his abstract shapes (mainly amebic or circular) and the final product emerges as a dazzling and quite beautiful lesson in the creation of optical art at its profoundest and most lyricalâ (John Gruen)
1971
21 Octoberâ23 November
Fangor participated in an exhibition with Richard Anuszkiewicz and George Segal at the College Vaughn-Eames Hall in Newark State College in New Jersey.
1973
February 1973âMarch 1974
He took part in the exhibition Curators Choice in New Jersey State Council on the Arts with Richard Anuszkiewicz, Walter Darby Bannard, Clarence H. Carter, John Civitello and Oscar Magnan.
May
A premiere performance of âMendicants of Eveningâ, a ballet choreographed by an outstanding dancer and teacher, Martha Graham, at the Alvin Theater in New York. Fangor designed stage sets with a dispersed circle and several ramps, which won very good reviews in the press. The ballet was also staged in 1974 as a âChroniqueâ at the Theatre Playbill in New York.
3â17 June
He presented works on paper at the Summit Art Center in Summit, New Jersey.
Since 1975 till 1976 he created a cycle of paintings referred to as âinterfacialâ, which the artist entitled âISâ (an acronym for Interfacial Space), adding subsequent numbers. This is what he wrote about the cycle several years later:
âIn the mid-seventies, I created figural paintings exploring the topic of the mental space emerging upon the meeting of two people. A contact between two individuals causes specific changes in the picture of each of the duetâs participants and a change in the meaning of the space between them. This space ceases to be dividing and indifferent, and becomes connecting and engaged. Strange relations occur between observed and the observing and the other way round. Both these parties deform each other. I called this cycle of painting interfacial spacesâ.
1977
He created a cycle of paintings inspired by the television screen. They were devoted to the topic of the tension between the sociocultural content and the activity of the screen, exuding its own light, with visual distortions resulting from the technology. This is what Fangor himself wrote about this cycle:
âHaving come to the USA, I found myself in the world increasingly based on electronic communication. The television, which is an ersatz of direct interpersonal relationships, became a wonderful field for the play between the natural electro-optical effects and the cultural- mythical stream flowing from itâ. (Fangor, 1990)
1979
The Fangors moved from Madison to a loft at 96 Grand Street in Manhattan, New York. The artist received an award from the Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation.
1980
July
Together with his wife, Magdalena Shummer, he made a drawing of a whale from paper towels, measuring 128 x 187 m, on a hill near Summit. A photograph of this work was included in Greg Gatenby’s book âWhales. A Celebrationâ. The proceeds from the sale of this book were donated to a whale rescue project.
November
On the initiative of his friend Ewa Pape, a collector and promoter of Polish art in the USA, and as a commission from an industrial tycoon Edmund Thornton, he made a spatial composition âGiantsâ in a park belonging to Ottawa Silica Company in Illinois. Sculptures of three more than 3 meters high heads made from steel sheet symbolized three generations of entrepreneurs, while the crude material of the works was a reference to elements symbolizing the mining industry.
1981
The artist was making preparations for an exhibition in Poland scheduled for the following year. The martial law introduced on 13 December made its execution impossible.
1983
Fangor retired and moved permanently from New York to his house in Summit. He converted his house and studio, and constructedâonly with the help from his friendsâa wooden astronomical observatory 265 cm in diameter. He also kept in close contact with Jerzy Soltan, who owned a summer house nearby. He showed his television paintings at the Bodley Gallery in New York.
1984
29 Marchâ21 April
He participated in the exhibition âSynthetic Artâ, presenting artists connected with the Harm Bouckaert Gallery in New York.
1987
21 Novemberâ30 December
His paintings were shown at the exhibition âPolnische Malerei 1945-1986i” in the Wiesbaden Museum in Germany.
1988
He received the first prize in a competition for a poster celebrating the 70 th anniversary of the restoration of Poland’s sovereignty. At this time, he created a series of paintings inspired by the âLifeâ magazine. The paintings on the topic of reportage photographs of well-known individuals and news from colourful magazines, were created on canvas with photographical accuracy in the form of a collage.
1989
April
His paintings were presented at the exhibition âAmerykaĆska kolekcja Studio. Donacja artystĂłw amerykaĆskich i Ewy Papeâ at the Galeria Studio in Warsaw.
The Fangors sold the farm in Summit and moved to Santa Fe in New Mexico. It was here that Wojciech finished his cycle of 36 expressively painted portraits of âPolish Kingsâ, inspired by Jan Matejko’s âGallery of Polish Kings and Princesâ. In response to a growing interest in his works in Poland, Fangor decided to donate more than one hundred of his paintings and drawings to the Polish nation. Along with the organization of a retrospective exhibition, he made it a condition that they be passed on to the Fundacja Kultury Polskiej provided a place for their permanent display was found. The paintings were deposited with the District Museum in Radom. After a dozen or so years of fruitless efforts, the artist gifted his paintings to the museum and took back the remaining ones.
1990
1-28 October
A retrospective exhibition âWojciech Fangor- 50 Years of Paintingâ was held at the ZachÄta National Gallery of Art. Along with paintings and drawings from the years 1940-1990 and a selection of posters from the period 1954-1962, the artist created a spatial composition composed of a drawing of a whale on the wall and pre-pressed structures referring to its shape. The installation was described on the wall of the gallery in the following way: âGlory to the Sea Whales, the Zameczniks and Ociepka’. The catalogue of the exhibition featured a fragment of a text by the Director of the Guggenheim Museum, Thomas M. Messer, summarizing the artist’s achievements:
âAnd even in the work of recent years in which non-objective abstraction gives way to recognizable subject matter, the latter still attempts to determine the implication of the spaces that separate the object viewed from the pair of eyes and the minds that view it. It is not by chance that the television image, in itself a mere projection, should now become the artistâs reference in his consistent efforts to signify what is real. Fangorâs paintings are as easily liked as they are easily misunderstood. For theit appeal, far from being the result of a decorative intent, is rooted in an intellectually demanding search whose traces have been eliminatedâ (Thomas M. Messer)
The exhibition was extensively reviewed in the press, and Franciszek Kuduk’s documentary âFangor. PĂłĆ wieku malowaniaâ (1991) was made as a result as well.
1992
A cycle of twelve paintings âIndian Chiefsâ was created. On the basis of historical photographs and prints, Fangor painted busts of Indian chiefs, on which, in the foreground, he arranged simplified logotypes resembling the seals of well-known industrial, financial and telecommunication companies. The intervention of logotypes deepened the sense of spatiality of the images, but was also an expression of a transformation of the society and a critique of corporate culture. This is what, several years later, the artist wrote about the cycle:
âThe construction of these paintings is based on a contrast between the illusive reality and the tangibility of a symbolic sign. We are also dealing here with a contrast between the illusory negative space and the surface of the image disclosed through the sign which lies on it. In many paintings, starting with the series of television ones, I used a similar contrast between an illusion of spatial reality and the reality of the surface expressed by a raster of dots, etc.â. (Wojciech Fangor, 2015)
1993
20 Februaryâ3 April
The Mitchell Algus Gallery in New York held an exhibition âTarget Paintingsâ. The artist’s first solo exhibition in New York since his show at the Guggenheim Museum presented his abstract paintings from the period 1965-1970. He started creating paintings showing chairs.
1994
10 Juneâ20 July
Covering paintings from the 1960s and 1980s, the exhibition âWojciech Fangor. Obrazy z kolekcji ofiarowanej przez artystÄ narodowi polskiemuâ was held at the Contemporary Art Museum in Radom, a unit of the Jacek Malczewski District Museum.
1995
17 Januaryâ20 February
A solo exhibition was held at the Galeria 72 in the District Museum in Chelm, curated by BoĆŒena Kowalska. In April, the show was presented at the Galeria Stara BWA in Lublin.
August-December
Fangor participated in a cycle of lectures and workshops for students, organized by Cleveland Institute of Art at the Lacoste School of the Arts in southern France.
1996
5-15 September
He took part in the 14th Outdoor Painting Workshop for Artists Using the Language of Geometry at Okuninka. The event was organized cyclically by BoĆŒena Kowalska, who invited Fangor to many outdoor workshops and exhibitions devoted to geometrical art including the exhibition âPiÄknoâkategoria przebrzmiaĆa?â at the Galeria 72 in CheĆm (15 Septemberâ15 October 1997) and the exhibition âJÄzyk geometrii IIâ at the Galeria Sztuki WspĂłĆczesnej BWA in Katowice, which was subsequently shown at the Galeria El in ElblÄ
g (27 Octoberâ3 December 2000).
1997
14 Juneâ12 October
The artist participated in the project âCircles of Divinity: Cross Cultural Connectionsâ in the Auckland Art Museum, University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
1998
He was invited to participate in a competition for a design of billboards expressing the idea of the road, which were to be put up along Interstate 25 crossing the desert in New Mexico. The artist designed the installation âVehicleâ, composed of four panels presenting different ways of transportation: a foot, a horse’s hoof, a wheel and the name of the road 01. He won the competition, but the project has never been executed.
In the same year, Fangor also created a cycle of works on paper âSignaturesâ in which he placed his own surname, using his flagship painting media. The works were subsequently sealed by a notary public in Santa Fe, confirming the authenticity of the signature. In this way, he underlined the significance of the artist’s signature as an object of art.
1999
April
The Fangors moved to Poland. After several months of searching for an appropriate house, they bought a neoclassicist palace at WilkĂłw, and began to restore it to its former glory. After a year of troublesome renovation, they sold it and moved to a mill adapted to become a place to live and a studio in BĆÄdĂłw.
2001
14 Mayâ30 June
A solo exhibition at the Galeria Stefana SzydĆowskiego in Warsaw began a long cooperation with Stefan SzydĆowski, an art dealer and critic, who curated Fangor’s many shows and wrote many texts devoted to him. BoĆŒena Kowalska published the artist’s first monograph entitled âFangor. Malarz przestrzeniâ.
October-December
The exhibition âFangor. Impresje polskie â impresje amerykaĆskieâ at the Pulaski Museum in Warka presented the artist’s two cycles of paintings: âPolish Kingsâ and âIndian Chiefsâ.
2002
10 Marchâ7 April
Fangor participated in the project âCollecting Contemporary Art: A Community Dialogueâ in the Auckland Art Museum, University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. On this occasion, his paintings were shown at the exhibition Eye in the Sky: Visions of Contemporary Art from Ackland Collection (9 Aprilâ16 September).
5 April
Galeria Rogatka in Radom opened an exhibition showing the paintings from the cycle âChairsâ (1993-1994) as well as the chairs being the models for the canvases themselves.
13 Aprilâ26 May
The artist participated in the exhibition âPolish Art 1955-1985″ in Southern California Collection at the Fullerton Museum of Art, California State University at San Bernardino.
21 Juneâ28 July
A solo exhibition âWojciech Fangor. Malarstwo, rysunek, formy przestrzenneâ was held at the BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Katowice. It was prepared by BoĆŒena Kowalska in collaboration with Zbigniew KamieĆski and MieczysĆaw Szewczuk.
2003
16 Septemberâ26 October
Wojciech Fangor’s retrospective exhibition was prepared at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw in cooperation with Piotr Zamecznik. It was curated by Milada ĆliziĆska.
Apart from his paintings from the last 40 years, Fangor presented âPillarsâ, prepared especially for this exhibition. The sculptures were made from 250 cm high cardboard-plaster pipes with the diameter of 60 cm, halved lengthwise. They had mirrors inside them, at the base. The external side of the pillars, with representations of female figures in the forms of dots and dashes, contrasted with their morose interior with its painted skeleton figures. The artist placed 13 Juneâ3 October his cycle of paintings âIndian Chiefsâ inside a room constructed to resemble a tepee. The viewers could look at them only from the outside. He also showed âpaintings with obstaclesâ, behind a crate.
The artist himself recollected the exhibition in the following way:
âWhile preparing the exhibition at the Ujazdowski Castle in 2003, I decided to design a system that would sharpen and disclose the process of the viewerâs perception of the view of an immovably hung paintings, at a small distance from them, which disturbed the normal viewing of the work. Only figurative paintings with illusive spaces inside them were fit for the purpose. Due to parallactic movements, the grilel before the paintings would disclose and condition the space between the viewer and the painting with the slightest movement of the viewerâ.
2004
27 Marchâ27 May
Fangor’s paintings were shown at the group exhibition âKolekcja Dariusza i Krzysztofa BieĆkowskichâ in the Contemporary Sculpture Museum in OroĆsko.
13 Juneâ3 October
His paintings were presented at the exhibition âBeyond Geometry: Experiments in Form, 1940s-70s”, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), which was subsequently transferred to the Miami Art Museum (18 October 2004â1 May 2005).
20 November 2004â30 January 2005
He participated in the exhibition âWarszawa â Moskwa I MoskwaâWarszawa 1900-2000â at the ZachÄta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw; it was later shown at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (March 2005).
2005
Since 2005 artist created a series of works entitled âPalimpsestâ. He used the drawings he had made since the 1940s, portraits, still lifes and landscapes. He printed them after enlargement- initially on paper, then directly on canvas, and he subsequently glued pieces of colourful paper or painted geometrical figures onto them.
9 kwietniaâ22 maja
A solo exhibition Wojciech Fangor. Exhibition of the Exhibition at the Polish Sculpture Centre at OroĆsko was prepared in cooperation with Piotr Zamecznik. It was curated by Mariusz Knorowski. Stefan SzydĆowski described it as follows:
âWojciech Fangor decided to introduce a dozen or so forms from hardboard, maintaining its natural colour, to this space. These forms resemble a new âarchitectureâ structures freshly defining the encountred space, becoming points of reference, something, which leaves and determines the space between. It is this âbetweenâ which becomes a place to be filled, played upon. Here it becomes a scene to which the actors of the show are ushered â silhouettes of people of art, painters, directors, curators, critics, the artistâs old and new acquaintances, attendees of his exhibitions, cut out from the polystyrene foam with cardboard glued and painted on it. It seems that it is a freeze-framed shot. A pictured moment, with the atmosphere of an exhibition constructed from real and unreal elements polished in the artistâs memory and imaginationâ. (Stefan SzydĆowski)
The exhibition was also shown at the Reszel Castle Gallery, a unit of the Museum of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (April 2005).
22 Septemberâ29 October
An exhibition of spatial installations âStructuresâ, prepared by Stefan Szydlowski, was held at the Galeria XX1 in Warsaw.
26 Novemberâ31 December
Fangor presented a series of palimpsest collages made on his enlarged drawings glued onto panels at the Galeria Stary Browar in PoznaĆ. In reaction to the encountered space of the renovated brewery, he also made a site-specific installation from the mirrors arranged on a platform, which reflected the arrangement of lighting in the restored historical brewery.
2006
27 October- 18 November
A solo exhibition â3 Dimensionsâ was held at the Winda Gallery of Contemporary Art in the Cultural Centre of Kielce.
2007
In 2007, at the invitation of the architect Andrzej ChoĆdzyĆski, Fangor participated in designing seven stations and an entry to the second line of the Warsaw underground. He proposed that entries to the underground be provided with a roof in the shape based on the letter M. He also designed inscriptions in simplified form, written in colourful italics, which was to highlight the direction of the movement of the train, on the station walls behind the tracks. His design won the competition, but during the execution, the investor decided to change the painted steel panels to glass ones and partially hide the walls with advertising billboards. Fangor defended his original design in court. As a result of a compromise agreement, he personally supervised its execution in collaboration with Daniel Wnuk. On 12 June 2012, prototypes of the panels together with the documentation were presented at an exhibition at the Galeria XX1 in Warsaw. The underground stations were opened on 8 March 2015.
31 Mayâ31 July
A solo exhibition âWojciech Fangor. Works on Paper in Colourâ was held at the aTAK Gallery in Warsaw. The exhibition, prepared in cooperation with Piotr Zamecznik, presented drawings from the period 1948-2006, which were displayed on the walls and on a structure with concave walls erected in the center of the room. Fangor also designed a catalogue of the exhibitionâit had the form of a book mock-up with miniature drawings of all the works. The catalogue received the award of the Polish Society of Book Publishers.
June-July
An exhibition of Fangor’s works from the 1960s and 1970s from Wojciech Fibak’s collection was held at the Fibak Collection Gallery in Warsaw.
1 Juneâ31 August
An exhibition âWojciech Fangor, Andrzej RysiĆski, Defragmentationâ was organized at the SzydĆowski Gallery in Warsaw. It was subsequently shown at the Book and Graphic Arts Centre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
20 April
The exhibition âZestaw wystaw. Wojciech Fangor, Magdalena Shummerâ was opened in the fire station in BĆÄdĂłw. Fangor was an active member of the local community of BĆÄdĂłw. Among his other contributions, he designed a standard for the Complex of Schools of Polish Olympic Game Champions in BĆÄdĂłw Volunteer Fire Brigade on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of its brass orchestra (2009).
2008
5 July
A spatial signature Fangor was shown in the Sculpture Park in the Polish Sculpture Centre at OroĆsko. During the vernissage, the artist was decorated with the Golden Medal for Merit to Culture â Gloria Artis. The following year, he received the Cyprian Kamil Norwid Award for this work.
2009
19 Marchâ19 April
The artist took part in the exhibition Enter/Escape. How Painting Shapes New Spaces in the Castle of Pomeranian Dukes in Szczecin.
24 Aprilâ14 June
His paintings were shown at the exhibition âCollection of Events. Art Exists Outside of Image. From the Collection of Dariusz BieĆkowskiâ, held at the Atlas Sztuki gallery in ĆĂłdĆș.
10 Juneâ13 September
Fangor’s paintings were presented at the exhibition âTom Slick: International Art Collectorâ at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas.
25 Septemberâ15 November
The artist’s solo exhibition was held at the Atlas Sztuki gallery in ĆĂłdĆș. Apart from paintings from the 1960s and 1970s, Fangor presented the installation âJanuary 1945â- a life-sized Styrofoam Soviet tank with its crew. The installation referred to the artist’s feelings connected with the experience of the end of the Second World War. On the one hand, the liberation finished the terror and annihilation of the war, but on the other, it brought fear of the new totalitarian system.
2010
Between 2010 and 2015, Fangor made several steel sculptures painted with automotive paint, which were to be displayed outdoors, including âSpatial Structureâ (2010), âFiery Birdâ (2012), âWaveâ (2012) and âGraceâ (2015).
13 Januaryâ27 February
A solo exhibition âWojciech Fangor. Palimpsestâ as held at the aTAK Gallery in Warsaw.
30 Januaryâ21 March
The artist took part in the exhibition âEscape: Polish Art in the Communist Eraâ in the Laband Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.
September
The solo exhibition âTelevision Paintingsâ, organized at the Stefan SzydĆowski Gallery in Warsaw.
At the exhibition âThe Space Between Usâ devoted to Stanislaw Zamecznik and held in the seat of the Association of the Polish Architects in Warsaw, the artist executed a spatial signature âHommage a Zamecznikâ, made from white-painted steel. It was displayed in the garden. In the years to come, he created a further two spatial signatures: âStarakâ (2014), devoted to the collector and patron of the arts Jerzy Starak, and âMagdaâ (2015), dedicated to his own wife.
2011
Fangor received the Commander’s Cross with the Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta. The exhibition âPoster from the Collection of Piotr DÄ browskiâ was held at the Galeria Test.
2012
At the exhibition The Smolensk Monument, documenting the international competition for the development of a concept of a monument commemorating the victims of the plane crash, which took place on 10 April 2010 near Smolensk, Fangor and Daniel Wnuk presented two joint designs in the Museum of Contemporary Sculpture in OroĆsko.
20 October 2012â06 January 2013
A retrospective exhibition âWojciech Fangor. Space as a Gameâ in the National Museum in Krakow was prepared to mark the artist’s 90th birthday and his 751h creative work anniversary. On the occasion, an extensive catalogue prepared by the curator of the exhibition, Stefan SzydĆowski, was published.
2013
The artist designed a stained-glass window in rainbow colours for the building of Museum Jerke in Recklinghausen, Germany. The museum was opened in April 2016.
11-28 June
A solo exhibition âWojciech Fangor Drawings 1947-1957″ was held at the Galeria XX1 in Warsaw, displaying Fangor’s drawings discovered after many years in the studio at Pankiewicza Street.
2014
15 Februaryâ15 June
Works from the collection of Grazyna Kulczyk were shown at the group exhibition âEverybody Is Nobody for Somebodyâ at the Fundacion Banco Santander in Madrid.
6 Marchâ25 July
An exhibition âWojciech Fangor. Spectra Art Space Mastersâ at the Spectra Art Space in Warsaw presented the artist’s works from the collection of Anna and Jerzy Starak and the spatial signature Starak.
30 Juneâ13 September
A retrospective exhibition âWojciech Fangor Memories of the Presentâ was held at the National Museum in Wroclaw. It was curated by Stefan SzydĆowski.
10 Decemberâ09 January 2015
The solo exhibition âColour Light Spaceâ at 3 Grafton Street in London presented the artist’s paintings from the 1960s and 1970s, originating from private collections. It was organized by Kasia Kulczyk in collaboration with Simon and Michaela de Pury.
2015
Fangor designed a poster for the exhibition âMagdalena WiÄcek. Affectingt the Eyeâ in the ZachÄta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw.
13 October
He received an honorary doctorate from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk. At the Gdansk Academy, the occasion was marked by the first edition of the Wojciech Fangor National Student Painting Competition under the patronage of the Fangor Foundation and the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk. The artist could not participate in the ceremony for health reasons. In a message expressing his gratitude, he wrote as follows:
âTaking this opportunity, I would like to share my experience and observations as a visual artist. Art is not to be practiced in pains and torments. Creativity is tantamount to desire leading to ecstasy. The desire does not come from the head. It is not a conscious decision. It originates in the intestines, in what the Anglo-Saxons call the guts. The head is a tool rather than the source of desire. […] We need the mind when selecting the technology, the tools, the material, but also the topic which is an excuse for the construction of the work. Every work has a topic which can be interpreted â be it the âBattle of Grunewaldâ or âBlack squareâ. There are no good or bad topics. Quality is an attribute of the content, and the content is not interpreted, but experienced. The content does not result from the topic, but from the structure and the cumulative impact of visual contrasts. The content contains the authorâs genes, the scent of time and the culture connected with time. Thank you very much once again for this honor. I wish you luck, successes, desire and ecstasyâ.
The Tri-City hosted several exhibitions presenting the artist’s works from various periods and areas of his oeuvre: âFangor Paintingâ in the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk (6-11 October); âFangor Television Paintingâ in Gdynia Film Centre in Gdynia (6 Octoberâ3 November); âFangor. Postersâ in Zatoka Sztuki in Sopot (October); âFangor. Heveliusâ in the State Gallery of Art in Sopot (6 Octoberâ8 November). The latter exhibition presented a cycle of paintings inspired by the Gdansk astronomer’s prints, which were prepared especially for this occasion.
14-18 October
The exhibition âWojciech Fangor. Six Works from the Sixtiesâ was organised during the Frieze Masters in London by the Mayor Gallery in London.
25 October
Wojciech Fangor died in JĂłzefĂłw and was buried on 3 November in the Military Cemetery at the PowÄ
zki in Warsaw.