Andrzej Kreutz Majewski

ANDRZEJ KREUTZ MAJEWSKI (b. 1936-d. 2011)
A world famous stage designer, painter and teacher, he is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow (1959) and the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome (1962). He debuted at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Cracow (1959). He started working for the Warsaw opera theatre in 1962, during the famous premiere of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring". He also designed the sets for the operas "The Prodigal Son" by Debussy and "Judith" by Honegger. He was appointed head stage designer of the Grand Theatre in 1966 (until 2005).
His most important foreign projects include Saint-Saëns' "Samson and Delilah" (Cologne Opera, 1968), Richard Strauss's operas "Salome" (Covent Garden, 1970) and "Electra" (Hamburg Opera, 1973; Paris Opera, 1974; Teatro Sao Carlos, 1992), Ionesco's "The Killer" (Burgtheater, 1971), "La Passione" (Piccolo Teatro di Milano, 1972), Orff's "De temporum fine comoedia" (Salzburg Festival, 1973), Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloe" (Bühnen der Stadt Bonn, 1987), Eben's "Jeremiah" (NárodniDivadlo, 1998), Mozart's "Don Giovanni" (Théatre Municipal in Luxembourg, 1998).
He is the winner of many prestigious awards, including Second Prize at the Art Biennial in Paris (1961), the First-Degree State Prize (1966), Gold Medals at the Stage Design Triennial in Novi Sad (1966) and the Prague Quadrennial (1967), the First-Degree Award of the Minister of Culture and Art (1975). He received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Poland's Restoration in 1998. Another important aspect of his work is painting, for which he has received many awards in Poland and abroad.
The paintings by Kreutz Majewski were repeatedly analyzed and described, forcing critics to express their thoughts and reflections. Marie Torrente claimed that his works "represent the end of our world! " and Melanie von Bismarck said that "figures are flat like silhouettes at the rifle range; they look dead but then they are brought to live when the ball reaches them. "