Lot 67044: CAZIEL (Polish/British, 1906-1988) Abstract

CAZIEL (Polish/British, 1906-1988) Abstract figures of bathers in yellow interior, c. 1947 Oil on canvas 21 x 25-1/2 inches (53.3 x 64.8 cm) Signed lower center: Caziel PROVENANCE: Galerie Allard, Paris (three stamps verso); Private collection. Following studies at Warsaw Academy of Arts, Kazimierz Józef Zielenkiewicz, Caziel (born 16 June 1906), went to Italy and then France, where after Liberation, he settled in Aix-en-Provence. In 1946 Caziel moved to Paris, where in the same year, he designed the Polish Pavilion for the UNESCO International Exhibition of Modern Art. In 1947, when sharing a studio with Picasso, Galerie Allard held a one-man exhibition, which was subsequently shown in the United States. A monumental painting by Caziel was acquired by the Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris. From 1948 he exhibited regularly at the Salon de Mai alongside Picasso, Leger and most of the leading Avant-Garde. By 1965 Caziel was already known and respected painter in Paris and in 1966 he held his first exhibition at the Grabowski Gallery in London prior to his settling in England in 1969. Since the 1998 Caziel Retrospective at the National Museum in Warsaw, Caziel has been widely recognized not only in his native Poland, but also in England and the rest of Europe and America, where his work can be found in many prominent private collections.