Tadeusz Kantor in Dead Class
Photo by Angel Fernandez Saura

Join us for an international symposium focusing on the art and theatre of one of the most important theatre figures of the 20th century, Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990). With Daniel Gerould and other international scholars, tba. Co-presented and supported by the Polish Cultural Institute, NY.

To say of Kantor that he is among Poland’s most outstanding artists of the second half of the twentieth century is to say very little. Kantor is to Polish art what Joseph Beuys was to German art, what Andy Warhol was to American art.

Jarosław Suchan, director of Museum of Art in Łódź,curator of Tadeusz Kantor. Interior of Imagination,
Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw 2005

Tadeusz Kantor(1915-1990) was one of the greatest artists of the 20th century– a “total artist,” as he used to say, and with good reason, so great was his ver satility. A painter, stage designer, poet, actor, and happener, he made a name for himself as a man of theatre, but even in this domain he remained first of all a painter who thought with images and used actors and props instead of paints. His Cricot 2 Theatre’s performances, beginning with Dead Class (1975), were hailed as true masterpieces.

The Kantor Symposium is a part of presentation of Tadeusz Kantor’s art and theatre, which will include: his installation Dead Class, recently purchased by the Jewish Museum and now part of its exhibition Absence (November 9, 2008-February 1, 2009), and filmed records of his past performances at La MaMa and now projected in the same space (November 10-16, 2008, 7:30 p.m.)

2 p.m. – 8 p.m., Monday, January 26, 2009 Martin E. Segal Theatre. Free!