Achievements
Strzemiński was held in high regard by the members of the Western avant-garde. His theory of Unism, a radical demand for the unity of the work, preceded by several years the Concrete Art Manifesto signed in 1930 by Europe’s prominent artists. Stażewski was very well acquainted with the latest theories of art in the West and, after several years in Paris, he had contacts in the avant-garde scene there. He had collaborated before in two avant-garde groups with Strzemiński and Kobro, who in turn imported the achievements of Constructivism and Suprematism from Russia to Poland: Blok (1924–1926) and Preasens (1926–1929). Put off by the excessive willingness to compromise displayed by other Preasens members, especially the architects, the three of them left and set up their own group “a.r” in 1929. Julian Przyboś – invited by Strzemiński – joined the group immediately, the two had worked together on previous occasions and both had radical views on contemporary art.
The series of volumes of the a.r. Library was initiated by Strzemiński with the help of Brzękowski and Stażewski, who were in Paris at the time. Published in 1931, it was the second collection –after Hanover – which included the works of contemporary masters. In addition to works by Polish artists, it also included representatives of the radical European avant-garde from Paris.
The first of the series was Julian Przyboś’s volume of poetry, Z Ponad (editor’s translation: From Beyond, 1930), at the time considered the most radical example of poet-artist collaboration. They also published Strzemiński and Kobro’s Composition of Space: Calculations of Spatio-Temporal Rhythm (1930), two volumes of poetry by Brzękowski and two by Przyboś with typography by Strzemiński, and Strzemiński’s Druk Funkcjonalny (Functional Print, 1935). Brzękowski’s volumes contained drawings by Hans Arp (W Drugiej Osobie / In the Second Person) and Max Ernst (Zaciśnięte Dookoła Ust / Around the Compressed Mouth).
The a.r. Statements – published in 1930 – were primarily devoted to ideological issues. The texts were collectively written and presented the group’s views not only on artistic matters, but also on social and political issues. The “a.r” group proclaimed the need for art to collaborate with poetry and a struggle for new art in all the fields of artistic creation. It was also a critique of the artistic ‘delays’ in relation to the leading European avant-garde and an accompanying postulate of the current artistic scene.
Their a.r. Statement No. 2 published by the end of 1932 had the form of a four-page leaflet. It included comments on mass art and gave new possibilities of persuasion, it also discusses its effective impact on society. Moreover,it took up the issue of national art dedicated to a wide audience and analysed formal matters concerning the composition of painting and pure painterly elements such as contrast, referred to in one of the texts as a source of form. Strzemiński examined the issue of distinguishing pure art of a ‘laboratory’ nature which creates forms from art that disseminate into everyday life. The architects were mainly interested in the standardisation of architecture, the furniture industry, and other applied arts. In addition to the thematically broad repertoire included in this small bulletin, it also managed to present the a.r. alphabet project, reproductions, poems, and lyrics dedicated to poetry.
In retrospect, the greatest achievement of the a.r group was creating a collection of the most prominent artists of the European avant-garde presented at the Municipal Museum of History and Art in Łódź in 1928. Władysław Strzmiński used the authorities’ growing attention to art and in 1929 proposed transferring the collection to the museum in the form of a group artistic deposit. The project was finalised in 1931.Throughout this time it was enriched and developed by the artists. Strzemiński and Kobro gathered collections across the country, while Stażewski did the same in Paris. Thanks to his former student, Wanda Chodasiewicz-Grabowska, he gained contacts within the avant-garde enviroment. Although the first results were not spectacular, including Jan Brzękowski in this task, it was undoubtfully an achievement: because he was acquainted with the avant-garde environment through the editorial board of L'Art Contemporain, he began the dynamic process of expanding the set and brought in works by Prampolini, Arp, and Ernst. When the collection was passed on to the Łódź Museum, it consisted of 21 pieces which had been privately transported to the country.
After signing a contract with the museum in 1931, it was possible to finance transport and therefore the collection comprised 75 works, only 15 of which were by Polish artists. In 1939, it reached 111 pieces. The project’s success was largely associated with Strzemiński’s formidable status in Łódź, which stemmed from his personality and charisma, rather than his official obligations.
The a.r. group never officially disbanded, but around the year 1932 its activity in the artistic and theoretical sphere lessened. The a.r. Library’s last publication was released in 1936.