Polish School of Poster Art
The Polish School of Poster Art ( polska szkoła plakatu ) is a name given to a group of Polish poster artists who enjoyed a good international reputation in the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1948 the graphic artist and painter Henryk Tomaszewski was awarded five first prizes at the International Poster Exhibition in Vienna. The autodidact Tadeusz Trepkowski showed a number of posters in the first post-war years, which were characterized by an extreme scarcity of means of expression. The young architect Jan Lenica made his debut with strange posters. Other Polish graphic artists such as Roman Cieślewicz , Walerian Borowczyk , Franciszek Starowieyski and Waldemar Świerzy showed interesting works at international competitions.
This soon resulted in the Polish School of Poster Art, which determined the high level of this art in Poland for decades. The artists enjoyed a certain freedom of fools, were not forced to follow the generally applicable rules of socialist realism .
In 1968 the Poster Museum in Wilanów was opened as a branch of the National Museum in Warsaw . The Polish masters of poster art got a meeting place. Every even year since 1994, the museum has organized an international competition - the International Biennale of Posters - under the auspices of the International Council of Graphic Design Association (Icograda).
The 1989 turning point brought new problems. The advertising agencies held the shrill posters in the US style more effectively than the refined, thought-connection-based works of the Polish school. Only the theater posters kept their previous level. Despite this, Polish artists are still active around the world and are present at many competitions and exhibitions.
"Polish poster art"
In 2008 and 2009 the Polish film director Robert Laus created a series of short films based on his own script, dedicated to the individual artists of the Polish poster school, including Waldemar Świerzy , Wojciech Fangor , Franciszek Starowieyski , Rosław Szaybo , Maciej Hibner and Mieczysław Wasilewski .
Literature and Sources
- Karolina Kempa: Polish Culture Posters in Socialism. An art-sociological study on the (meaning) interpretation of the work of Jan Lenica and Franciszek Starowieyski. Wiesbaden 2018.