The Amsterdam Composition is an arrangement of surfaces illuminated by colour and coloured solids designed to be perceived in time, in the rhythm of visiting the exhibition. The reaction to a change of colour played a fundamental role in the composition, as the preserved memory of one colour influenced the perception of the next one, giving the final effect only after viewing the whole. Such a concept of a spatial work of art was several years ahead of similar solutions, which emerged in op-art. Zamecznik had collaborated with Fangor earlier, in 1957, as part of the Second Exhibition of Modern Art, when the three of them, together with Oskar Hansen, created an installation of curved black and white panels hung inside and outside the Zachęta building.
After the Khrushchev Thaw, in 1958, Stanisław Zamecznik, together with Oskar Hansen and Lech Tomaszewski, was commissioned by the Minister of Culture and Art to develop a project for the extension of the Zachęta building (1960-61). It was then that a proposal was put forward to create a sensational, mobile structure allowing for free usage of the exhibition space. The body of the annex was a simple, ascetic cube with a steel structure and glass façades. The inner walls could be moved at will, according to the needs of a particular exhibition. Moreover, only the ground floor was covered by a fixed ceiling. The next three floors had movable ceilings, so that the height of the exhibition rooms could be adjusted to suit both chamber music and monumental works. This project, innovative on a world scale, was never built.
It is impossible to describe all the exhibitions prepared by Stanisław Zamecznik. Certainly one of the most memorable was the exhibition of Leopold Sempoliński’s photograms (1969, Zachęta) depicting a destroyed Warsaw. Zamecznik arranged it in the expressive form of an allusion to cemetery tombstones.
Zamecznik understood the necessity of spatial subordination of all the components of an exhibition to a qualitatively new whole, creating, as a consequence, a separate sphere, an area whose sense and climate depended on the tasks of a given show. By definition, museums are such separate zones. The result of nearly 20 years of cooperation between Stanisław Zamecznik and the Historical Museum of the City of Warsaw was the form of the permanent exhibition depicting the history of mediaeval Warsaw, the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras, as well as rooms showing the city during the Nazi occupation and the reconstruction of the capital after World War II. He created spaces there with their own dramaturgy, developing over time, but always subordinated to the communicated content.
Another current in Zamecznik’s explorations was the creation of an ‘arrangement’ of a book that departed from tradition. In his understanding, a book is not only the content presented in a static form of print and bound in a cover, but also its colourful, dynamic equivalent in the form of visual impressions that follow the word. The Coffee Grinder by Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński, which he worked on, was called ‘a masterpiece of editorial ingenuity’ by the English press. The second important item, Julian Tuwim’s Czary i Czarty Polskie (Polish Magic and Devils), caused considerable controversy at the time of its publication because it broke with established conventions. Zamecznik showed how, by creatively operating with artistic shortcuts, the frame of a reproduction or a column of print, one can saturate and vibrate the layout with the richness of colour, paper and type.
Stanisław Zamecznik was also the designer of many film posters, including: The Ladykillers, Battleship Potemkin, Ringo Kid, Alien and Ashes.
In his didactic work, he promoted the original idea of ‘polyphony in space’ by having students arrange matchboxes in accordance with music theory.
Major projects:
- 1937 – graphic design for the Polish Pavilion at the Art and Technology World Exhibition in Paris
- 1937 – graphic design for the exhibition Warszawa Wczoraj, Dziś i Jutro (Warsaw of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow), National Museum, Warsaw
- 1947 – exhibition design for the exhibition 50 Years of French Film, National Museum, Warsaw
- 1948 – exhibition design for the exhibition French Painting and Ceramics by Picasso, National Museum, Warsaw
- 1948 – design for the Coal pavilion at the Exhibition of Regained Territories, Wrocław (with Wojciech Zamecznik); award
- 1950 – Exhibition design for the Museum of the Earth in Warsaw
- 1951 – design of the exposition of the Polish Pavilion at the 29th International Fair in Milan (with Henryk Tomaszewski)
- 1953 – exhibition design for the Polish Pavilion at the Stockholm International Fair (with Oskar Hansen and Wojciech Zamecznik)
- 1954 – exhibition design for the Polish Pavilion at the Paris International Fair (with Wojciech Fangor)
- 1957 – exhibition design for the Sculpture in the Garden exhibition, SARP, Warsaw
- 1957 – participation in the Second Exhibition of Modern Art, Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw
- 1958 – design for the spatial exhibition of Wojciech Fangor’s paintings, Nowa Kultura Salon, Jewish Theatre, Warsaw
- 1959 – exhibition project for the exhibition of Polish painting Colour in Space (with Wojciech Fangor), Amsterdam, Copenhagen
- 1959 – exhibition design for an exhibition of sculptures and drawings by Henry Moore (with Wojciech Zamecznik), Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw
- 1959 – exhibition design for the photography exhibition The Family of Man (with Wojciech Fangor), Redutowe Hall of the National Theatre, Warsaw
- 1960 – design for the Polish Pavilion at the Buenos Aires International Fair (gold medal)
- 1960-61 - project to extend the Zachęta building in Warsaw (with Oskar Hansen and Lech Tomaszewski, not realised)
- 1961 – Colour in Space design for the square in front of the Zachęta Gallery (with Wojciech Fangor)
- 1964-65 – design of permanent exhibition in the Lenin Museum in Warsaw (with J. Kosiński)
- 1969 – Participation in the competition for the redesign of the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw (team)
Originally written in Polish by Ewa Gorządek, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, September 2007, translated into English by PG, August 2021