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Tadeusz Kantor (b April 6, 1915 in Wielopole
Skrzynskie|Wielopole Skrzyńskie - December 8,
1990 in Kraków, Poland) was an Poland|Polish
painter, scene designer and theatre director.

Graduating from the Kraków Academy in 1939,
Kantor founded the Independent Theatre during the
Nazi occupation.  He became a professor at
Kraków’s Academy of Fine Arts and a director of
experimental theatre in Krakow|Kraków in the
years 1942-1944.  Following the war, he become
known for his avant-garde work in stage design
including designs for Saint Joan (1956) and
Measure for Measure (1956).

Becoming disenfranchised by the avant-garde's
increasing institutionalization, in 1955 he and a
group of visual artists formed his own theatre,
Cricot 2.  In the 60s, he traveled widely with his
theatre becoming known for staging "happenings". 
His interest was mainly with the absurdists and
Polish writer Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (also
known as "Witkacy").  The Cuttlefish (1956) and
The Water Hen (1969) were his best known
productions during this time. A 1972 performance
of The Water Hen was described as "the
least-publicised, most talked-about event at the
Edinburgh festival". 

Dead Class (1970) was the most famous of his
theatre pieces of the 1970s.  Within the piece,
Kantor himself took the role of a teacher who
presided over seemly dead characters who are
confronted by mannequins which represented their
younger selves. He had began experimenting with
the juxtaposition of mannequins and live actors in
the 1950s.

His later works of the 80s were very personal
reflections.  As in Dead Class, he would sometimes
represent himself onstage.  In the 1990s, his
works became well known in the United States due
to presentations at Ellen Stewart's Cafe La Mama.

==Productions and works==
After the war he set up his own avant-garde
theatre, Cricot 2, where, amongst others, the
works of Witkacy were presented:
*The Cuttlefish (1956)
*The Hyrcanian World View
*In the Small Mansion
*The Madman and the Nun
*The Water Hen (1968)
*Where Are the Snows of Yesteryear (1982)
*Let the Artist Die (1985)
*I Shall Never Return (1988)
*Today is My Birthday (1990)

His most important works are:
*Death of a class (1975)
*Wielopole, wielopole (1980)
*You will never return here (1985)

His best known paintings are:
*Man with Umbrella (1949)
*the Industrial bags series (1964)
*Emballage (1964 - 1975)
*the Nothing any more series (1986 - 1990)
*September Defeat (1990) 


==References==
# Wilson, Edwin. Goldfarb, Alvin. Living Theatre:
A History. Publisher: McGraw-Hill, 4th edition.
August 5, 2003. ISBN 0072562579 

==External links==
* http://www.cricoteka.com.pl Cricoteka Centre for
the Documentation of the art of Tadeusz Kantor
*
http://www.blinkred.com/gallery/static/da_kantor01
.asp Demarco European Art Foundation images of
Edinburgh performances by Tadeusz Kantor