He aimed to bring the poster image as close as possible to mechanical engineering: Who is Henryk Berlewi?

(1894-1967) Polish poster maker, and painter. With his original style, he was influential in the development of the search for new forms of poster art. Born in Warsaw, died in Paris. After studying in Warsaw from 1904 to 1909, he entered the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Anwerrs. He continued his education at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1911-1912.

Henryk Berlewi (October 20, 1894 – August 2, 1967) was a Polish-French painter, graphic designer and art theorist, who is primarily remembered as an abstract artist who paved the way for optical art, but he was also an important figure in Yiddish book design and typography in the early 1920s. He drew portraits of many Jewish writers and artists, among them Uri Zvi Greenberg.

He met Lissitzky in Berlin in 1921, and Doesburg two years later. Through them, he was influenced by both Constructivism (Making) originating from the Soviet Union, and Neo-Plastism originating from the Netherlands and developed a style that appeals to geometric abstraction. He aimed to bring the poster painting as close as possible to mechanical engineering. He brought this drawing method, which he called Mecbanofaktur, to a theoretical expression. He published it as a manifesto in Warsaw in 1924.

He worked as an art critic and theater decorator for a while. He met Malevich in 1927 and was influenced by Suprematism, which he pioneered. Together with Malevich, he pioneered the formation of a constructivist group called Blok in Poland.

He settled in Paris in 1928. After that, II. Until after World War II, he moved away from abstract painting and made figurative works. However, he returned to Mecbanofaktur in 1957. He founded Abstract Art and International Avant-Garde Archives in 1960. After 1962, he tried to apply Mecbanofaktur with the technique of cinema.

Henryk Berlewi played an important role in the development of non-figurative painting in Europe, starting from the First World War years when he was interested in new movements such as Dadaism, Futurism-(Futurism), and Constructivism. He contributed to this development with the Mecbanofaktur declaration and the exhibitions of the same name at the Sturm Gallery in Berlin in the early 1920s. He also influenced artists such as Wat and Brucz around him. With these direct and indirect effects, Henryk Berlewi became one of the pioneers of the "experimental posterism" approach, which aims to move away from the established understanding of form and to seek new and unknown forms, both in Poland and in Europe in general.

The Henryk Berlewi Archive

https://berlewi.com/