Samuel Szczekacz (1917–1983)

Samuel Szczekacz started to attend drawing, painting, sculpture and art history classes at Wladyslaw Strzeminski in 1935. Strzeminski, as befits a pioneer of constructivism avant-garde, in his teaching program left some space also for other forms of creative activity, which were developing together with constructivism. Szczekacz was a talented student and thanks to Wladyslaw Strzeminski`s recommendation in the end of 1936 he became a member of the Trade Union of Polish Artists in Lodz. In the next two years his works were shown on exhibitions in Lodz, Cracow, Lvov and Warsaw. In 1938 he emigrated from Lodz to Belgium, from where he soon left to Palestine, where in the first half of the 40s his works were shown in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. In Israel Szczekacz (from financial reasons) occupied himself with design and worked as an architect. His works waited for many years to be presented again. They were shown only in 1937 in the Folkwang Museum in Essen and after next ten years in the Pompidou Centre in Paris, during the joint exhibition of Polish avant-garde prepared in cooperation with the Art Museum in Lodz. Then the artist`s works waited for over twenty-five years to be presented again, this time individually. In 2009 they were shown in Berinson Gallery in Berlin and then in CSW (The Center of Modern Art) Zamek Ujazdowski in Warsaw. In spite of a short period of creative activity and his young age, Samuel Szczekacz created important works, which are influential until today. As a young man he had a chance to go through and experience a lot, in Lodz Belgium Palestine, and later on in Israel as well. Hendrik A. Berinson became interested in the artist`s eventful life and artistic journey, and thanks to his attempts the works by Szczekacz came back to Europe after many years, and the collector tirelessly promotes the artist`s creative activity. Jozef Robakowski in his last joint exhibition Front Wschodni (The Eastern Front) prepared in our gallery showed several works by Samuel Szczekacz. He repeated to me many times that we should bring the creative output of Szczekacz closer to the citizens of Lodz. Thanks to him I got to know Hendrik A. Berinson. In Atlas Sztuki we will display the artist`s works coming mostly from the Berinson Gallery and from the collection of the Art Museum in Lodz and the Collection of doctor Werner Jerke.
On behalf of our exhibition two texts concerning the creative output of Samuel Szczekacz were written. The author of the first one is the curator of the Art Museum in Lodz, Anna Saciuk-Gasowska, the second one was written by Agata Mendrychowska, on the daily basis connected with Atlas Sztuki. We also publish the conversations conducted with the fans of Samuel Szczekacz`s works, Jozef Robakowski and Hendrik A. Berinson. I encourage you to read our catalogue, which, I hope, will bring a little known but outstanding artist, who Samuel Szczekacz is until today, closer to Polish readers.