Wojciech Fangor
Wojciech Fangor (born in 1922 in Warsaw, died in 2015 in Warsaw) studied in Felicjan Kowarski’s studio at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, where he also taught from 1954 to 1961. He debuted in 1949 at the Young Artists and Scientists Club.
He was one of the pioneers of socialist realism in Poland and the author of the most famous works of that period. Fangor was also a co-creator of the global success of Polish poster art. He opened a new chapter in the environment art movement worldwide. His paintings contributed to the establishment of Op-Art, and he became the author of the concept of positive illusory space. In 1961, he left Poland. From 1962 to 1964, he lived in Paris, and later from 1964 to 1965, he stayed in Berlin on a Ford Foundation scholarship. In 1966, he settled permanently in the United States, where he collaborated, among others, with the New York "Galerie Chalette". From 1966 to 1983, he taught at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, and from 1967 to 1968, at Harvard University. In 1999, he returned to Poland, where he remained until his death.
Selected solo exhibitions:
2024 Wojciech Fangor. American Dream, Krupa Art Foundation, Wrocław
2024 Fangor on the 50th Anniversary of the Botanical Garden in Powsin, Willa Janówek, Warsaw
2023/24 Wojciech Fangor and His Contemporaries 1960-1995, GNYP Gallery, Antwerp
2023 One Object Gallery. Presentation of the painting Guernica by Wojciech Fangor, Museum of Independence - X Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel Museum, Warsaw
2022/23 Fangor. Multidimensional, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
2022/23 Fangor. Today Is My Birthday, Mazovian Centre for Contemporary Art Elektrownia, Radom
2022/23 Fangor. Beyond the Painting, National Museum, Gdańsk
2022 Wojciech Fangor. Television Paintings 1977-1984, GNYP Gallery, Berlin
2021/22 Fangor. The Art of the Book, aTAK Gallery, Warsaw
2018 Wojciech Fangor. The Early 1960s, Heather James Fine Art, San Francisco
2018 Wojciech Fangor. Optyczne Wibracje, Mazovian Centre of Contemporary Art “Elektrownia”, Radom (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2017 Krzesła, Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2017 Wojciech Fangor. A Portrait of the Artist, GNYP Gallery, Berlin
2015 Wojciech Fangor. Six Paintings from the Sixties, The Mayor Gallery - Frieze Masters
London
2015 Wspomnienie teraźniejszości, National Museum in Wrocław (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2015 Wojciech Fangor, Sygnatura, Rzeźba Environment, Spectra Art Space, Warsaw (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2015 Wojciech Fangor. Malarstwo, Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2015 Wojciech Fangor. Heweliusz, State Gallery of Art, Sopot (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2015 Wojciech Fangor Plakat, Zatoka Sztuki, Sopot (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2015 Wojciech Fangor. 3 wymiary. Retrospektywa, Polish Sculpture Centre, Orońsko (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2015 Wojciech Fangor, Nagroda im. Jana Cybisa za 2014, House of the Artist in Warsaw (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2014/15 Wojciech Fangor. Colour-Light-Space, 3 Grafton Street, London
2013 Wojciech Fangor. Rysunki 1947-1957, Gallery XX1, Warsaw (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2012 Wojciech Fangor. Visual Design of the Second Line of the Warsaw Underground, Gallery XX1
Warsaw (curator: Stefan Szydłowski)2012 Przestrzeń jako gra, National Museum in Kraków (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2010 Palimpsest, aTak Gallery, Warsaw (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2010 Wojciech Fangor, Obrazy telewizyjne, Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw
2009 Wojciech Fangor, Atlas of Art, Łódź (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2008 Berlin 1965, Replika, Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw
2008 Sygnatura, Polish Sculpture Centre, Orońsko (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2007 Wojciech Fangor, ze zbiorów Olgi i Wojciecha Fibaków, Fibak Gallery, Warsaw (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2005 Wojciech Fangor 1948-1968, Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw
2004 Portrait, Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw
2003 Contemporary Art Centre Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
2002 Sygnatury, Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw
2001 Wojciech Fangor, Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw
2000 Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw
1994 Museum of Art, Radom
1990 Retrospective Exhibition – 50 Years of Painting, Zachęta, Warsaw
1994 Hokin Gallery, Chicago
1974-71 University Art Museum, Berkeley, California
1970 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
1966 Kunstverein, Stuttgart
1965-66 Galerie Springer, Berlin
1964 Museum Schloss Morsbroich, Leverkusen
1963 Galerie Lambert, Paris
1962 Institute of Contemporary Art, Washington
1958 Studium przestrzeni, Salon Nowej Kultury, Warsaw
1949 Young Artists and Scientists Club, Warsaw (former IPS)
Selected group exhibitions:
2024 New Generation and Classics from the Wojciech Fibak Collection, Centre for Contemporary Art, Toruń
2023/24 The Art of Seeing. Nowosielski and Others, Royal Castle, Warsaw
2023 Extreme Tension. Art Between Politics and Society 1945–1990, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
2022 Echo obecności, Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw (Sławomir Elsner, Wojciech Fangor, Aleksandra Jachtoma)
2021 Zimna rewolucja. Społeczeństwa Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej wobec socrealizmu, 1948-1959, Zachęta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki, Warszawa
2020 Socrealizm. Sztuka w służbie propagandy, Muzeum im. Jacka Malczewskiego - Muzeum Sztuki Współczesnej, Radom
2020 Od Boznańskiej do Fangora. Kolekcja Urszuli i Piotra Hofman, Muzeum Okręgowe,
Nowy Sącz
2019/20 II wojna światowa – dramat, symbol, trauma, MOCAK Muzeum Sztuki Współczesnej w Krakowie
2019 The Fullness of Color: 1960s Painting, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Nowy Jork
2018 Wśród Przyjaciół, Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw
2017 Przygody z op-artem, Fundacja Stefana Gierowskiego, Warszawa
2016/17 From the Collection. 1960-1969, Museum of Modern Art, Nowy Jork
2016 Kolekcja sztuki polskiej II połowy XX i XXI wieku, Muzeum Narodowe - Pawilon Czterech Kopuł, Wrocław
2015 Chromatic: Minimalism and Color Field Experiments, Newark Museum of Art
Newark
2015 Skarby z kraju Chopina. Sztuka polska XV–XX wieku, National Museum of Korea, Seoul
Skarby z kraju Chopina. Sztuka polska XV–XX wieku, National Museum of China, Beijing
2014 À propos malarstwo. W. Fangor, K. Kamoji, S. Krygier, W. Strzemiński, M. Stangret-Kantor, T. Tatarczyk, Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw
2014 Pop Europe?, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton, UK
2013 Polish Art Now, Saatchi Gallery, London
2012 Czesław Czapliński. Fangor, Royal Lazienki Museum Warsaw
2011 Tribute to Fangor, BWA Warsaw
2011 Ground Fest, Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw
2011 Wojciech Fangor, Stefan Krygier, Monika Krygier, Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw
2007 Defragmentacje, Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2007 Defragmentacje, Gallery of Painting and Graphics, St. Petersburg, Russia (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2007 Defragmentacje, Zamek Gallery, Vyborg, Russia (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2007 Zestaw wystaw, Volunteer Fire Department, Błędów (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
2006 Jej portret, Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw (curated by Stefan Szydłowski)
1994 National Museum, Warsaw
1980 Tharp Gallery, New York
1974 Aldrich Museum of Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut
1968 34th Venice Art Biennale, Venice
1967 Pittsburgh International, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1965 The Responsive Eye, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1964 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
1961 15 Polish Painters, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1959 Polish Painting Now, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
1957 2nd Exhibition of Modern Art, Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw
1951 2nd National Exhibition of Visual Arts, Warsaw
1950 1st National Exhibition of Visual Arts, Warsaw