CAZIEL, (Polish/British, 1906-1988)

The early development of Caziel as a painter took place in Warsaw amongst artists greatly influenced by the Ecole de Paris. His early work, dating 1930s carried many features characteristic of an expressive manner later so explicit in the works painted in France.
During the Second World War, following the defeat of the Polish army, Caziel went into hiding in Aix-en-Provence, where he found himself at the centre of the milieu of Cézanne. As a tribute to the great modern master, Caziel painted a series of nudes, shaped by strong contour lines, placed in unusual compositions of depth and perspective and painted with simple colours. He also followed Cézanne in making the Mont Sainte Victoire his subject for a series of small oils.
Back in Paris in 1947 Caziel developed an individual and colourful form of ‘cubist’ abstraction. He had befriended Picasso who introduced him to the great modernists Le Corbusier and Brancusi. In Paris Caziel first exhibited at the Galerie Allard (1947), then with Bernheim Jeune (1948) and at the Salon de Mai (1948-56). In 1946 he decorated the Polish pavilion at the UNESCO exhibition.
During the 1950’s Caziel’s paintings evolved into rigorous geometrical patterns, anticipating his pure abstract works of the 1960s. These abstract works were exhibited in London at the Grabowski Gallery.
Caziel moved to Britain in 1969 and was naturalised British in 1975.
A major retrospective of his work was hosted by the National Museum in Warsaw in 1998.

Bibliography

Caziel, exhibition catalogue Grabowski Gallery, London, 1966
Caziel, exhibition catalogue Grabowski Gallery, London, 1968.
Conroy MADDOX, ‘Caziel’, Arts Review, 14 May 1966.
Jenny PERY, “The grand play of light”, AM Publications, 1997.
Dorota MONKIEWICZ, Caziel, Catalogue Raisonné, Warsaw, 1998.