Wojciech Fangor is one of the most recognisable Polish artists working in the 20th century. The history of his art includes several fascinating artistic turns. His works entered the canon of socialist realist art, the 1958 study of space prepared together with Zamecznik was a precursor to similar activities undertaken in world art. He became permanently inscribed in the history of Polish poster art, being one of the main figures of the so-called Polish poster school. However, it was a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in 1970, which in itself was evidence of the position he had gained in New York art as one of the first creators of op-art. However, he became interested in the rippling, dynamic, op-art-led compositions earlier, as early as the early 1960s. In 1965, he was invited to participate in one of the most important exhibitions of this direction, 'The Responsive Eye'. It was shown at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and curated by William C. Seitz. Two other artists with links to Poland - Julian Stanczak and Richard Anuszkiewicz - also participated in this exhibition. Visited by more than 180,000 people, it was a great success. It is considered the beginning of American op-art.

The artist's artistic debut was an exhibition shown in 1949; at the dawn of socialist realism, he showed painting with clear cubic influences. However, Socialist Realism turned his art onto other tracks. Among the works from this period, 'Mother Korean' and 'Figures' have a special place. Not only some of the better works of the period, but also through ambiguous contexts that raise doubts, which seem to grow in the self-ironic painting, dating as early as 1953, showing the Palace of Culture and Science being carried in, which at first appears inverted. Moving away from socialist realism, he sought - like many others - a safe space in the poster. And indeed, his poster for René Clément's 1952 film The Walls of Malapaga won him an award at the National Poster Exhibition.

In 1958, together with Stanisław Zamecznik, they prepared the spatial installation 'Study of Space' in the now-defunct salon of 'Nowa Kultura', discovering how dispersed backgrounds allow the construction of a dynamic pictorial space. The artists ultimately did not treat them as independent compositions, but proposed a kind of environment. The 20 canvases arranged in the room created complex spatial relationships, creating a kind of open-ended work. The artists showed another exhibition dedicated to the study of space at the Stedelijk Museum in 1959.

In 1961, Wojciech Fangor decided to leave Poland. Initially to Vienna, and from there to the USA in 1962 as a scholarship holder at The Institute of Contemporary Arts. He then briefly returned to Europe as a result of receiving a Ford scholarship in West Berlin, and then to Bath Academy of Art in Corsham, England, for a year. Eventually, however, he moved to the USA in 1966. He taught at, among others, Farleigh Dickinson University, Madison, N.J. (1966-1983) and the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1967-1968). Although his op-art paintings brought him his greatest fame, the mid-1970s saw another turn in his work. The artist turned to so-called television paintings, which he continued to paint until around 1984. Abstraction was again replaced by figuration, or rather a variety of images, including television images, of contemporary culture. He was primarily interested in the media structure of the image, but also in its wider cultural context. He seemed to take a critical approach to it. Although not without fascination, but one that critically approached the medium, sensing its banality. The artist stayed in the USA until 1999, when he decided to return to Poland. He then settled near Warsaw. In 2014, a year before his death, he designed a series of murals for the Warsaw metro. His paintings are in many museum collections and private collections around the world, including:
"Mf", 1969, El Museo del Barrio
"Number 17", Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (the painting was shown in the exhibition "The Responsive Eye"), 1965
Untitled, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York
"M 63" at the Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco
"M5-1969" at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh
"M 48" at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
"M39" at the Smart Museum of Art in Chicago

Wojciech Fangor's painting "M 63" at the Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in San Francisco. The work was made in 1969 and was acquired for the collection in 1977.