Polish painter, opera and theatre stage designer, draughtsman, and professor at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts. Andrzej Kreütz-Majewski was born on September 19, 1936, in Brdów near Kościelec Kolski, Poland, and died on February 28, 2011.

He graduated from the Karol Marcinkowski Secondary School in Poznań in 1953 and later studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, graduating in 1959 from the Faculty of Painting and Stage Design under, among others, Karol Frycz and Andrzej Stopka. He also completed an internship with Fabrizio Clerici at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome.

Kreütz-Majewski made his debut as a stage designer in 1959 at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków, creating the visual setting for Juliusz Słowacki’s drama Horsztyński. In 1962, he began collaborating with the Grand Theatre in Warsaw (Teatr Wielki), debuting there with Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. That same year, he designed sets for productions of Debussy’s The Prodigal Son, Honegger’s Judith, Nono’s Il mantello rosso (The Red Cloak), and de Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat.

In 1966, he was appointed chief stage designer of the Grand Theatre in Warsaw, a position he held until his retirement on July 31, 2005. Over the course of his career, he created more than 300 theatre and opera stage designs.

Beyond his extensive work for the Grand Theatre and other Polish stages, Kreütz-Majewski designed productions for many renowned theatres around the world, including venues in Amsterdam, Ankara, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Bonn, Buenos Aires, Buffalo, Detroit, Dortmund, Essen, Geneva, Hamburg, Cologne, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Mexico City, Munich, Moscow, New York, Oslo, Paris, Prague, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Turin, Vancouver, Vienna, and Zurich.

Among his most significant international productions were:

• Samson et Dalila by Saint-Saëns (Cologne Opera),
• Richard Strauss’s Salome (Covent Garden, London),
• Elektra (Hamburg State Opera, Paris Opera, Teatro São Carlos),
• Ionesco’s Jeu de massacre (Killing Game) at the Burgtheater in Vienna,
• La Passione at Piccolo Teatro di Milano,
• Orff’s De temporum fine comoedia at the Salzburg Festival,
• Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé at Bühnen der Stadt Bonn,
• Jeremiasz by Eben at the National Theatre in Prague,
• and Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Théâtre Municipal in Luxembourg.

Painting and exhibitions

Kreütz-Majewski’s first solo exhibition took place in 1957 at Tadeusz Kantor’s Cricot 2 Theatre in Kraków. From then onward, his paintings and stage designs were presented extensively in Poland and abroad.

His works were exhibited, among others:

• twice at the Wright Hepburn Gallery in London (1968, 1970),
• at Galerie Foyer in Cologne (1968),
• and at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City (1974).

His stage designs were also shown at:

• the Arsenal Library in Paris (1974),
  while his paintings appeared at:
• Galerie Muda-2 in Hamburg (1985),
• the Venice Biennale (1986),
• and Galerie Varszinház in Budapest (1992).

In 1986, his paintings, stage designs, costumes, and theatrical props were presented at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space.

A major monographic exhibition featuring 280 of his most important paintings and stage designs was held in 1984 at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw.

In 1990, the Polish Scenography Centre of the Silesian Museum opened the Andrzej Majewski Author’s Gallery dedicated to his work. That same year, Galerie der Deutschen Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf presented an exhibition of his stage designs created for productions directed by August Everding.

In 2003, the Grand Theatre in Warsaw organized an exhibition titled Flashback, devoted to his painting and scenography. His later exhibitions included:

• Illusion Built with a Brush at the Polish Scenography Centre of the Silesian Museum in Katowice (2007),
• and According to Wyspiański: Professor Kreütz-Majewski and Students at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw (2007).

Awards and distinctions

• 1961 – Second Prize for the stage design of Shakespeare’s Hamlet at the Paris Biennale
• 1963 – Third Degree Award of the Minister of Culture and Art
• 1966 – Gold Medal for the stage design of Stravinsky’s Orpheus directed by Alfredo Rodriguez at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw, awarded at the Scenography Triennale in Novi Sad
• 1966 – First Degree State Award
• 1967 – Gold Medal for Orpheus at the Prague Quadrennial of Scenography
• 1975 – First Degree Award of the Minister of Culture and Art
• 1988 – Medal “Meritorious for Polish Culture”
• 1998 – Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta
• 1999 – “Coryphaeus of Polish Scenography” Award
• 2003 – Minister of Culture Award for outstanding achievements in theatrical stage design

Andrzej Kreütz-Majewski is regarded as one of the most important Polish stage designers of the 20th century, celebrated for his visionary theatrical imagination, painterly sensitivity, and monumental approach to scenography.