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Editor's note
The catalogue, prepared for the centenary of Wladyslaw Strzeminski's
birth, accompanies a monograph exhibition, and documents (with minor omissions)
the complete work of the artist. The only deliberate omission is a collection
of postcards painted during the German occupation of Poland, which are not
of importance in the artist's oeuvre. It has proved impossible to compile
a complete list of the various design projects which the artist worked on
between 1945 and 1951, particularly those prepared jointly with other designers
(this will require further research). The catalogue contains only the works
of which Strzeminski is the sole author. In order to provide a more complete
characterization of Strzeminski's artistic output, a separate section of
the catalogue lists works which have been lost and are known only from illustrations.
In recognition of the problems connected with the research on works attributed
to Strzeminski, these works have been grouped under yet another separate
heading.
The starting point for the present catalogue was the unpublished and unfinished
catalogue prepared in 1980 by Dr Zofia Baranowicz from the IS PAN (the Art
Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences) for the Muzeum Sztuki (Museum
of Art) in Lodz. The documentation that she collected, especially concerning
the privately owned works, made it possible to prepare the present catalogue
in a relatively short time. The editor would also like to acknowledge the
invaluable help of Janina Tadnowska, who is also the author of the section
of the catalogue dealing with typography.
The collected works of Strzeminski have been grouped in accordance with
the commonly accepted principles of classification into the following sections:
Within these sections and sub-sections the works have been
arranged chronologically.
Works created in the same year have been ordered according to their relative
importance, while at the same time an attempt was made to preserve the sequence
ensuing from the confirmed and hypothetical dating. Each section and sub-section
of the catalogue is separately numbered. Thus each work is marked with a
section number (Roman numerals), a letter indicating its sub-section, the
position of the work in the chronological sequence within the section (Arabic
numerals); among the others I.1 .; IV.A.1.
Each catalogue entry contains the following essential information:
- the title and the date of the work (hypothetical dates have been given
in square brackets)
- the technique and size of the work (in centimeters, height x width x depth)
- the artist's signature and its placement
- the owner (if the work belongs to a museum, also the inventory number)
- provenance
In some cases the entry includes additional information on:
- other titles appearing in the literature on the subject (given in brackets
under the proper title)
- the description of the reverse of the work ( if there are sketches, drawings,
etc. , author's inscriptions other than his signature, other inscriptions,
labels, stamps that may have importance for the work's history)
- information about the previous owners
- selected bibliography of the object, sometimes complemented with information
about the published illustration of the work
- the exhibitions at which the work was shown ( as documented by the relevant
publications: catalogues, guides and press notes. This part of the entry
may contain abbreviations from the separate List of Exhibitions included
in this catalogue. The work's catalogue number and the page on which one
may find the illustration are given in brackets. The unconfirmed showing
of a work is marked with a ? . The question mark also indicates difficulties
in linking the work with a number in the given catalogue).
- notes and comments ( annotating the history of the work or facilitating
its placement in the artist's oeuvre
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