Dummy of Bedel on a Chair is an object from Tadeusz Kantor’s performance Umarła klasa [The Dead Class]. The premiere took place in the Krzysztofory Gallery in Kraków in November 1975.

Umarła klasa [The Dead Class], a play produced by Kantor in 1976, was called a drama séance by him during which the figures of Witkacy and Bruno Schulz, two great fascinations of Kantor, were summoned.
The performance was kept in the convention of a nightmare, in which you go back to your school days and experience the trauma associated with this period. In response to a signal given by Kantor, who is the conductor of the entire situation, a procession of figures begins – a procession of old men carrying children on their backs who are grown into a part of their bodies.

“Children at their desk” from Umarła klasa [The Dead Class] is an art work (installation) by Tadeusz Kantor created in the spring of 1989 in the Cricoteka facilities on Kanonicza Street. It is one of several examples of works by this artist, drawing upon the idea of the Umarła klasa [The Dead Class] performance (version of “A boy at his desk from The Dead Class”, “School Class — Closed Work”, various kinds of drawings, sketches and paintings from the years 1975–1990) that was specially prepared for the future Museum of the Cricot 2 Theatre.

Emanuel Edmund Herncisz (1858–1885) studied at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków under Władysław Łuszczkiewicz, Leopold Loeffler and Jan Matejko during the period 1874–1882. Thanks to the scholarship of the Austrian government, during the period 1882–1883, after completing his education in Kraków, Herncisz went on to study at the Munich academy. In 1883, the artist made a trip to Italy, where he planned to return with Seweryn Bieszczad to take up painting studies. The artist’s plans were scuppered by tuberculosis, which would lead to his death two years later.

Ferdynand Bryll, painter, portraitist, conservator and illustrator, was born in 1863, in Kraków. In the years 1876–1884, he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków. In the course of his studies, in 1882, at the request of Jan Matejko, he assisted Henryk Rodakowski during his work on the frieze in the parliamentary chamber in Lviv.