Geometric Abstraction in Cracow artistic milieu in 1960-2010.

Despite the stereotype that an artistic stage of Cracow after World War 2 was dominated by Colourism, Surrealism, Tachisme and Matter Painting – distinctly present in the circle of the Second Krakow Group and its leader Tadeusz Kantor, and in the later period dominated by expressionistic figuration, we may also observe in the Cracow milieu a significant interest for cold Geometric Abstraction that is based on optical effects. Especially after 1960 we can follow in Cracow development of various tendencies in Geometric Abstraction to name only Op Art, Minimal Art or Post Painterly Abstraction. This development was undoubtedly affected by succeeding exhibitions of the International Print Biennial (at present Print Triennial) within which works from this artistic circle appeared next to popular in the 1960s Pop Art. Different versions of Geometric Abstraction were practised, for instance, by the following artists: Alina Kalczyńska, Ryszard Otręba and Jan Pamuła who, as one of the first artists in Poland, paid his attention to computer graphic art. The initiated in the 1960s trend for Geometric Abstraction in Cracow painting and graphics has been continued till today, being at the same time an alternative to figurative tendencies and multimedia art. The author discusses the succeeding generations of artists from Cracow dealing with Geometric Abstractionism, starting from emigrant artist Mieczysław Janikowski, who studied in Cracow as early as before the war and was a joint between inter-war and post-war avantgarde, and reaching at the Action of Abstraction Revaluation, undertaken by the Cracow gallery F.A.I.T in 2008–2009 with participation of the young- est artistic generation. Artists from Cracow, let it be Adam Marczyński and his apprentice Janusz Orbitowski, created geometric relief compositions. Jerzy Kałucki’s painterly Geometric Abstraction was accompanied by conceptual works and installations. The work of Adam Wsiołkowski is situated somewhere between abstraction and figuration and may be ascribed to the stream of Visualism. Nevertheless, what comes as characteristic for Polish artists focusing on Abstractionism is referring to the contents of a spiritual character, symbolic meanings of numbers and geometric figures. These tendencies may also be observed on the example of Cracow artists, to name but a few: Tadeusz Wiktor, Teresa Bujnowska, Andrzej Bednarczyk, Tamara Berdowska, Michał Misiak, and Beata Popławska