V.2.

V.3.

Spatial Composition 1,

1948

(ill.1 83) painted wood, 67,5 x 149,5 x 100 not signed

coll. Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, inv. no. MS/SN/R/20

Donated by the Artist, 1948

Bibl.: J. Ladnowska, Sala Neoplastyczna..., in: Miejsce sztuki..., Lodz 1991 , p. 75

Exh.: Essen-Otterlo 1973 (cat. no. 111 , ill.); Zurich 1974 (cat. no. 259); Warszawa 1974 (cat. no. 27); Stockholm 1975/1976 (cat. no. 110); New York-Chicago 1976/1977; Montreal 1977 (cat. no. 164); Paris 1983 (cat. no. 736); Odense-Hovikodden 1985/1986 (cat. no. 93, ill. p. 96)

Note: In 1948 W. Strzeminski made two spatial compositions, constructed of painted square-section strips and quadrilateral planes (cf. cat. V.4.). They corresponded with the set of furniture designed by the artist for the Neoplastic Room and were also intended for this interior. The compositional similarity of these objects and the preserved designs for exhibition arrangements (cf. cat. IV.D.3-7) suggests their possible practical use.

V.4

Spatial Composition 2,

1948

(ill. 184) painted wood, 100,5 x 150 x 67 not signed

coll. Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, inv.no. MS/SN/R/21

Donated by the Artist, 1948

Bibl.: J. Ladnowska, Sala Neoplastyczna..., in: Miejsce sztuki..., Lodz 1991 , p. 75

Exh.: Essen-Otterlo 1973 (cat. no. 112, ill. p. 208 ); Stockholm 1975/1976 (cat. no. 111 , ill.); New York-Chicago 1976/1977; Montreal 1977 (cat. no. 165); Paris 1983 (cat. no. 737); Odense-Hovikodden 1985/1986 (cat. no. 94, ill. p. 97)

V.5

The Neoplastic Room,

1948/1960 (ill. 185)

coll. Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz Wieckowskiego Str. 36 2nd floor, height 420 x length 960 x width 528

Bibl.: J. Ladnowska, Sala Neoplastyczna.., in Miejsce sztuki..., Lodz 1991 , pp. 71 -80

Note: The room was designed and realized in the first half of 1948 in the former residence of a Lodz manufacturer which was adapted between 1946 and 1948 for the Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz. It was commissioned by the director of the Museum, Marian Minich. During the realization phase Wladyslaw Strzeminski collaborated with Boleslaw Utkin, and the actual painting was done by Wladyslaw Gorski. The former living room on the 2nd floor (the so-called"Berlin room") situated near the residence's annex and laid out on a square base, with one corner cut was partly rebuilt, in accordance with Strzeminski's design. The entrances to the room were made larger, and the divisions of the only window in the comer were changed. However, the large centrally situated ceiling window was left untouched. The walls and the ceiling were sectioned into vertical and horizontal surfaces covered with primary colours - red, blue and yellow - and "non-colours" - white, black, grey. The neutral strip of carpeting divided the interior into two parts: in the western part, the "non-colours" formed the background for Katarzyna Kobro's white and coloured sculptures and the paintings by the artists of the De Stijl circle; in the eastern part, the red and blue colours of the walls were balanced off against furniture and three-dimensional objects designed by Strzeminski. The Neoplastic Room, as J. Ladnowska has observed,"appears as a link between the 'heroic' twenties and the realism and prose of the forties". Its opening for the public coincided with the opening of the first post-war exhibition on June 13th, 1948. However, on October 1 st, 1950, the modern art collection was closed to the public, and the Neoplastic Room was painted over. In 1960 Marian Minich commissioned Boleslaw Utkin to restore this interior. The Neoplastic Room was also reconstructed at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, in 1983, for the exhibition Presences Polonaises and in 1985 at Fyns Kunstmuseum in Odense, in Denmark. This reconstruction is now at Van Reekum Museum in Apeldoorn, in Holland.

V.6

Design for a wall - painting at the Savoy Hotel

[1950] (ill. 186)

tempera, pencil, paper, 29.5 x 128 not signed

coll.Hanna Orzechowska Siecinska, Warszawa

Note: The design for a wall - painting that was to decorate Savoy Hotel in Lodz was never carried out. It is worth noting the artist's treatment of the light openings with oval, irregular shapes, admitting light through warm-coloured panels.

Compiled by Zenobia Karnicka