Creator Bio
Tadeusz Kantor
1915–1990
Polish artist Tadeusz Kantor was a leading exponent of avant-garde art and theater in Poland after World War II, particularly in Kraków, where he organized an underground theater, exhibitions, and discussion groups. His work, such as The Dead Class, which is also the title of a play, often blends visual art and theater. He was influenced by artistic movements such as Constructivism, Expressionism, and Futurism, as well by as the writings of Bruno Schulz. Kantor organized the first Happening in Poland (1965) and experimented with Conceptual Art in the 1970s.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
The Dead Class
In The Dead Class, the most famous of Kantor’s theater pieces from the 1970s, the main characters of the play are elderly men (who are to be understood as being dead), who return to their school desks…