Tadeusz Kantor

Tadeusz Kantor (April 6, 1915 – December 8, 1990) was a Polish painter, scene designer and theatre director.

Born in Wielopole Skrzyńskie, Galicia (in what was then Austria-Hungary) into a Polish-Jewish family. Kantor graduated from the Kraków Academy in 1939. During the Nazi occupation of Poland, he founded the Independent Theatre, and served as a professor at Kraków’s Academy of Fine Arts and a director of experimental theatre in Kraków from 1942 to 1944. Following the war, he become known for his avant-garde work in stage design including designs for Saint Joan (1956) and Measure for Measure (1956).

Becoming disenfranchised by the avant-garde's increasing institutionalization, in 1955 he and a group of visual artists formed a new theatre, Cricot 2. In the 1960s, he traveled widely with his theatre, becoming known for staging "happenings". His interest was mainly with the absurdists and Polish writer Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (also known as "Witkacy"). The Cuttlefish (1956) and The Water Hen (1969) were his best known productions during this time. A 1972 performance of The Water Hen was described as "the least-publicised, most talked-about event at the Edinburgh festival".

Dead Class (1970) was the most famous of his theatre pieces of the 1970s. Within the piece, Kantor himself took the role of a teacher who presided over seemingly dead characters who are confronted by mannequins which represented their younger selves. He had began experimenting with the juxtaposition of mannequins and live actors in the 1950s.

His later works of the 80s were very personal reflections. As in Dead Class, he would sometimes represent himself onstage. In the 1990s, his works became well known in the United States due to presentations at Ellen Stewart's La MaMa Experimental Theater Club.

Kantor died in Kraków.

Productions and works

After the war he set up his own avant-garde theatre, Cricot 2, where, amongst others, the works of Witkacy were presented:

• The Cuttlefish (1956)
• The Hyrcanian World View
• In the Small Mansion
• The Madman and the Nun
• The Water Hen (1968)
• Where Are the Snows of Yesteryear (1982)
• Let the Artist Die (1985)
• I Shall Never Return (1988)
• Today is My Birthday (1990)

His most important works are:

• The Dead Class (1975)
• Wielopole, wielopole (1980)
• You will never return here (1985)

His best known paintings are:

• Man with Umbrella (1949)
• the Industrial bags series (1964)
• Emballage (1964 - 1975)
• the Nothing any more series (1986 - 1990)
• September Defeat (1990)

References

1. Kobialka, Michal, ed and trans. "A Journey Through Other Spaces: Essays and Manifestos, 1944-1990." Publisher: University of California Press, 1993. ISBN 0-520-08423-3
2. Wilson, Edwin. Goldfarb, Alvin. Living Theatre: A History. Publisher: McGraw-Hill, 4th edition. August 5, 2003. ISBN 0-07-256257-9

External links

• Cricoteka Centre for the Documentation of the art of Tadeusz Kantor
• Kantor's gallery at malarze.com
• Demarco European Art Foundation images of Edinburgh performances by Tadeusz Kantor