Tadeusz Kantor Gallery-Studio
Kraków Artists: Theatre, Cabaret and Film
An art gallery devoted to Tadeusz Kantor, founded in 1995 in the artist's former flat, a branch of Cricoteka. It was opened to visitors five years after his death. Kantor lived and worked in it in 1987-1990, and the space looks exactly as it did when the artist left it for the last time: personal items, drawings, mementoes, writings and furniture have been preserved. Tadeusz Kantor's room forms the basis of the permanent exhibition, and alongside it visitors can see temporary exhibitions of borrowed works by Kantor and other artists associated with him.
History
The Gallery-Studio is in the tenement house at Sienna Street 7, in Tadeusz Kantor's former flat; the artist lived and worked here from 1987 to 1990. His last works were created right here. The flat was opened to visitors in 1995, five years after his death, as a branch of Kraków's Cricoteka.
Kantor's room forms the heart of the permanent exhibition and looks as if the artist has only just left it: his furniture, writings, drawings, personal odds and ends and keepsakes are still there. Besides the permanent exhibition, visitors can see temporary exhibitions with loaned works by Kantor and by other artists connected with him.
Kantor (1915-1990) was a painter, stage designer and director. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, and in 1955 he founded the Cricot 2 theatre, known for the productions "Umarła klasa" (The Dead Class) and "Wielopole, Wielopole".
The tenement itself, on the corner of Sienna Street and Stolarska Street, was built in 1851-1861 on the site of a house destroyed in the great fire of Kraków in 1850. It forms the southern frontage of the Small Market Square, and its façade has Neoclassical features.
Did you know?
The first premiere of the Cricot 2 theatre, in 1956, was "Mątwa" (The Cuttlefish) after Witkiewicz. Already in this production Kantor used elements that became the hallmark of his theatre: the actors moved like puppets, and their acting resembled a silent film.