Polish poster art became an
organized movement between 1890 and 1905, principally in Cracow and
Lvov , then under Austro-Hungarian rule. The economic and cultural
communities expressed interest in posters to promote their activities.
In Poland posters originated in the studios of well-known late-nineteenth
century artists, such as Stanislaw Wyspianski, Wojciech Kossak, Jozef
Mehoffer, Teodor Axentowicz and Wojciech Weiss. The Society of Polish
Applied Art, founded in 1902, opposed foreign influences and composed
posters with traditional historic forms. These earliest posters revealed
Polish folk art, and were characterized by decorative color patterns
and a rhythmic flow of line. From the outset critics in Paris , Vienna
, and Munich recognized their distinctiveness. Their approach to design
– lightness in conveying the subject, the free manner of associating
theme and image – is shared by their successors a half-century
later.
Between 1919 and 1939, Polish posters were enriched by a steady stream
of progressive European art movements – Cubism, Constructivism,
Futurism, and Surrealism. The artists included not only applied graphic
designers, but also printmakers, painters, architects, sculptors,
and cinematographers. Warsaw became the noted center of poster art
in Poland . The greatest master of this time was Tadeusz Gronowski,
who brought the ideas of modern design and art deco from Paris to
Poland . Characteristic of Gronowski and other graduates of the Faculty
of Architecture of the Warsaw Technical University was design discipline,
clear compositional structure, and expressive graphic symbols. A factor
favorable to the growth of applied graphic art was the period of economic
crisis in the years 1929-1933. Business firms advertised themselves
through posters among other media. |
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After World War II Polish society gradually began to regard poster design
as an art form equal in importance to painting. On the one hand there were
political propaganda posters drawn from the Soviet influence, and on the
other were posters on cultural topics, particularly films as people flocked
to the movies. Movie posters that evolved were unlike most in that a scene
was rarely shown. Instead the artists tried to capture the essence of the
film or use a visual metaphor to sum up the impression of it. This trend
caught on and spread to other fields. Posters became an outlet for individual
artistic expression Henryk Tomaszewski defined what later became known as
the Polish School of Poster Art - Polish poster school by basing his work
on artistic statement and on graphic interpretation of the film. Jan Lenica
and Wojciech Fangor were among the first to introduce painters’ tools
to poster design through use of texture and strong color masses and freedom
with which they shaped their images. The posters of polish poster school,
the height of the Polish school of poster art, were full of life and deeply
humane content. So distinctive was Polish poster art that it became recognized
worldwide. Tadeusz Trepkowski is known as the father of the postwar political
poster. His 1952 anti-war poster of a bombed out building inside the silhouette
of a descending bomb and the single word Nie! (No!) is a classic. In the
sixties the art form favored simplicity, being purely graphic, cool, and
devoid of emotion. Critics regard the mid-fifties through the early seventies
as the golden age of Polish posters
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In the seventies, film posters
began to lose their importance and theater posters led Polish poster
art. Waldemar Swierzy’s poster for Andrzej Wajda”s Promised
Land won the Hollywood Reporter award in 1975 for the best foreign
film poster. In the early 1980’s, after the birth of the trade
union Solidarity, posters burst to life carrying political messages
aimed at the government. As the Cold War ebbed there was an influx
of such Western trends as Surrealism, neo-Art Nouveau, and Pop art.
Artists began experimenting with photographic techniques, collage,
and knowledge gained from studies in optics. Political and social
transformation after 1989 introduced changes in the production and
function of posters. |
Since 1966 the International Poster Biennale is held every two years at
the Zacheta, Warsaw ’s largest art gallery. It is undoubtedly the
most important international poster competition with designers from over
50 countries submitting works. In 1968 a poster museum, a branch of the
National Museum in Warsaw , was founded outside Warsaw in the rebuilt horse
stables of the former royal summer residence in Wilanow. The Smithsonian
Institute Traveling Exhibition sponsored a two-year American tour of Polish
posters beginning in 1978. Galleries hang posters alongside watercolors,
oils, and more traditional graphics. Posters in Poland are personal statements
on cultural topics. Polish posters are as fiercely individualistic as the
personalities involved. Among the winners of major national and international
awards, and considered masters of modern Polish poster school, are Jerzy
Czerniawski, Grzegorz Marszalek, Jan Mlodozeniec, Wiktor Sadowski, Franciszek
Starowiejski, Waldemar Swierzy, and Wieslaw Walkuski. |
