Caziel (Polish/British, 1906–1988) attended the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts between 1931 and 1936, where the influence of French Post-Impressionist painting was omnipresent. He immigrated to Paris in 1937, and, with the outbreak of World War II, volunteered for the Polish army in France. After the war, Caziel searched for a new form of pictorial space. This search came to fruition with his first solo show at the Galerie Allard in 1947, which was followed by an invitation to join artists Pablo Picasso, Hans Hartung, Victor Vasarely, Alfred Manessier, and others to exhibit at the prestigious Salon de mai.

Caziel’s friendship with Picasso created a stylistic division in his work, with strong and expressive lyrical forms competing with more abstract elements. During his years in Paris, Caziel was a central figure in the development of the École de Paris. After moving out of Paris to the surrounding countryside, his paintings evolved into rigorous geometrical patterns, anticipating his pure abstract works of the 1960s.

Caziel made his first trip to England in 1956. In 1969 he moved permanently to Somerset, and became a naturalized British citizen in 1975. During the later part of his career, Caziel continued to explore abstraction until his death at the age of 82.