Katarzyna Kobro – Constructivist avant-garde in Poland

The works of Polish artist Katarzyna Kobro represent the integration of science into art. The sculptor and representative of Constructivism was known for constantly reinterpreting her works, thereby making them accessible to a broad audience.

Her works only achieved their major breakthrough after her death. Much was destroyed or lost during the Second World War. She personally restored some works after the war, while many others were restored later, based on relevant documents from the time of their creation.

Who was Katarzyna Kobro?

Katarzyna Kobro was born on January 26, 1898, in Moscow and died on February 21, 1951, in Lodz. The Polish sculptor, who came from a noble family, had German-Latvian and Russian roots. Together with her husband, Wladyslaw Strzeminski , Katarzyna Kobro is considered a key figure of Constructivism and the Central European avant-garde .

Kobro and Strzeminski had a daughter together, Jakobina (Nika) Strzeminska (1936 – 2001), who became a doctor and later wrote biographical texts about the artistic work of her parents.

From 1917 to 1920, Kobro studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. While still a student, she became a member of the Moscow Artists' Union and exhibited her first sculpture in Smolensk, the "ToS 75 Structure ," a composite of metal , wood, cork, and glass. At the end of 1919, she moved to Smolensk and married Vladyslaw Strzeminski there in 1920.

Even during her studies, the artist showed an interest in constructing artworks from abstract basic elements. She enjoyed working with machine-made metals and glass. The technological played an important role in her works. Her “Floating Construction 1” and “Floating Construction 2” are considered the first experiments in kinetic sculpture in Poland and were reconstructed in the 1970s.

Together with Wladyslaw Strzeminski, Kobro was in contact with the most important representatives of the constructivist avant-garde in Europe. She was particularly impressed by Georges Vantongerloo, Hans Arp , and Constantin Brancusi .

Although Katarzyna Kobro and Wladyslaw Strzeminski still spoke favorably of the post-revolutionary Russian art of El Lissitzky and Kazimir Malevich , they turned away from it completely by the turn of the year 1921/22. While Kobro was still working for the theater of a public education center, her husband increasingly resented the conformist art world of the USSR , and so they ultimately decided to flee to Poland, where Kobro received Polish citizenship in 1924.

Constructivist Avant-garde in Poland

Wladyslaw Strzeminski was a painter, Katarzyna Kobro a sculptor. Together, they developed new theories of modern art in Poland . Strzeminski received more attention than his wife, not least because of his more dominant personality and his significant influence on many Polish artists.

For Kobro, art was a functional model of social life. Although she and her husband disagreed on this point, they managed to reach an agreement in 1931 in their most important joint text. In “Composition of Space: Calculations of Space-Time-Rhythm,” they distinguish between flat painting and three-dimensional architecture and sculpture.

Take a look at the video presentation by Michalina Kmiecik (Jagiellonian University in Krakow) at the East Central European Centre of the Harriman Institute. This event is part of the event series East Central Vanguard: New Perspectives on the Avant-Garde

In contrast to painting, architecture and sculpture appeared organically connected within space. The task of modern art was to develop its autonomy. Furthermore, it should cultivate its specific, clearly defined structural principles and components. For Kobro, this meant creating sculptures . Her field of expertise was the constructivist conception of space. Thus, her work is typical of Russian modernism, in which geometry and basic forms are central; objects, people, animals, and landscapes, on the other hand, are absent.

Kobro assembled her sculptures from equally important elements into a form without a center point, that is, a unistic sculpture. For her color scheme, she chose blue, red and yellow, black and white, silver, or gray. The wandering gaze and the different colors of the sculptural elements create the rhythm of space and time.

Kobro's ambition was to constantly reinterpret art and present it to a common public through mass production – this eventually became famous as the Polish constructivist avant-garde.

Kobro's work in the 1920s and 1930s

Kobro's most famous work was the sculpture series "Spatial Compositions" (original title in Polish: "Kompozycja Przestrzenna"), created between 1925 and 1933. Although she primarily focused on creating sculptures, Katarzyna Kobro also designed posters and, in 1929, contributed to the interior design of pavilion at the Polish National Exhibition

In 1926, Kobro's works were exhibited in Poland for the first time, as part of a larger Praesens exhibition at the Zachta Gallery in Warsaw . Her work was not well received by the critics, who believed that sculpture should be made of a solid mass. Furthermore, they could not make sense of Kobro's interpretation of space. Kobro received support from Strzeminiski, who believed in her and insisted that her work deserved greater attention and a fair evaluation.

From 1925 to 1930, Kobro created nine spatial compositions. Her aim was to distance herself from the primary task of sculpture, which was to represent the human form. She fragmented the compositions and used metal sheets, which she painted in different colors.

With the exception of the last spatial composition, all are based on a uniform numerical value and repeat certain proportions that correspond to the Golden Ratio. The eighth composition, created in 1932, is white and represents the architectural extension of the sculptures in the model.

This replica was created at a scale of 5:1 in relation to the reproduction of the original sculpture "Spatial Composition" from 1929, which is housed in the Art Museum in Łódź. In the background are the visual artists Iwona Demko and Agata Zbylut, as well as the curator Karina Dzieweczyńska, who is implementing the "Congress of Dreamers" project at the EL Gallery Art Center.

Works

In 1930, Katarzyna Kobro played a crucial role in the founding of the Museum of Modern Art in Łódź . In 1932, she and Władysław Strzeminski became members of Abstraction-Création. In 1936, she signed as a supporter of Karloy (Charles) Siratos's Paris Manifeste Dimensioniste , which aimed to promote the integration of scientific advances into art.

After the premature birth of her daughter, Kobro devoted more time to managing the household and had less time for art. Her sickly daughter required a great deal of attention. Kobro now created traditional works, but also an abstract nude.

During the war, the family was on the run . Initially, after the Nazi invasion, they fled to Vilejka in the east. From 1940 to 1945, they were exiled from Russia and returned to Lodz. There, they discovered that the artworks they had left in the cellar of their apartment had been destroyed by the people who had lived there during their absence.

After the war, Katarzyna Kobro's life became increasingly unstable . She separated from Strzeminski in 1947, who unsuccessfully attempted to deprive her of custody of their daughter. She earned a meager living by making and selling toys. During this time, she also drew landscapes, still lifes, and portraits of her daughter.

At the Sztuki Museum in Lodz, she oversaw the restoration of her sculptures, which had suffered considerable damage during the war. In 1948, she modeled in clay and participated in the first exhibition at the Sztuki Museum , exhibiting five of her works.

Due to an indictment for “deviation from Polish nationality” in 1949/50, she was sentenced to six months in prison, from which she was released after an appeal.

Kobro died after a long illness on February 21, 1951, in a hospice in Lodz . During her lifetime, she was unable to achieve any significant success as an artist after the Second World War. After her death, art historians began restoring her works. Interest in Kobro's work and her influence on the artistic and social conditions of her time continues to this day.

Kobro's life was made into a film in 2011. In the television production "Powidoki," Nina Czerkies played the role of Kobro. Maciej Wojtyszko directed.

What significance did the artist have for sculpture?

Kobro is of great importance to the Constructivist avant-garde and is among the most significant sculptors of the interwar period . Since many of her works have been lost over the years, some have been reconstructed based on contemporary documents. The full extent of Kobro's importance to Constructivism only became clear decades after her death, when the art world increasingly engaged with her work following the opening of Eastern Europe.

What influence did Katarzyna Kobro have on the art world?

Interest in Katarzyna Kobro's work and her contribution to Constructivism remains strong to this day. In the 1980s and 1990s, critics and academics increasingly took an interest in Kobro's life and work. A feminist interpretation of Kobro and her work was also encouraged. During this period, her work was presented in various exhibitions, particularly internationally.

Where are works by Katarzyna Kobro exhibited?

Kobro's works are exhibited, for example, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of the "Collection 1940s–1970s ." Her works were also recently exhibited Kunsthaus Stuttgart Sztuki Museum in Lodz.

Where can I buy artworks by Katarzyna Kobro?

Kobro's works are sold at major art auction houses . Among others, her works are offered at Christie's . A sculpture by Kobro was first auctioned there in 1990.

Joachim Rodriguez y Romero

Owner and Managing Director of Kunstplaza. Journalist, editor, and passionate blogger in the field of art, design, and creativity since 2011. Successful completion of a degree in web design as part of a university study (2008). Further development of creativity techniques through courses in free drawing, expressive painting, and theatre/acting. Profound knowledge of the art market through years of journalistic research and numerous collaborations with actors/institutions from art and culture.

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