Introducing Polish Poster Art
The story of Polish poster art starts in France at the end of the 19th century with Jules Chéret’s invention of the color lithograph. Established Polish painters such as Józef Mehoffer, Stanislaw Wyspiański, and Wojciech Weiss embraced this new medium, incorporating elements of Polish folk art with Art Nouveau and Social Realism. The resulting images, produced mainly for art openings and theater and ballet performances, were distinguished in quality and were immediately regarded as high art, leading to the first International Exposition of the Poster held in Kraków in 1898.
When Poland gained independence in 1918 after the first World War, artists Stefan Norblin and Tadeusz Gronowski adapted the poster using it for advertising and tourism. As the country fell to Communist rule after World War II, however, Polish posters initially survived to propagate the Soviet agenda. This is also when things got interesting. The state had control of media during this period, so there was no commercial interest in advertisements. In the 1950s, this lack of commercial pressure, coupled with the relaxation of oppressive Stalinist policy, ushered in a period of creative experimentation in which Polish poster art took off as a unique form.
The state did not care how the posters looked, as long as they were made, and there were plenty of great artists-- Henryk Tomaszewski, Wiktor Górka, Jerzy Flisak , Jan Młodożeniec, Waldemar Świerzy, Jan Lenica and Franciszek Starowieyski, among others--ready to take the poster to the next, bizarre, unrestricted, and surreal level of self-expression and artistic interpretation, beginning what is now known as the first “Polish Poster School”. For many years during this period, every film, performance, concert, festival or other public event had a commissioned poster. By 1968, the world’s first poster museum was opened in Wilinów, just outside Warsaw (the museum still thrives today: http://www.postermuseum.pl/)
The next wave happened in 1970s Wrocław. For artists like Rafał Olbiński, Jan Sawka, Jerzy Czerniawski, Jan Jaromir Aleksiun, and Eugeniusz Get-Stankiewicz, nonconformity and dissension became the norm. Theirs were primarily conceptual posters, abstracting further upon what had already begun with the previous generation.Polish poster artists like Andrzej Pągowski and Wiktor Sadowski saw some success in the 1980s, but cuts in arts funding took their toll, and. many artists at this time fled the country to find work elsewhere. Solidarność (the rise of the Polish labor movement, also known as “Solidarity”) contributed to the decline of Polish poster art in the 1980s. With Solidarność came economic interest, and the interpretative freedom abundant in poster art under state control was hampered by studio and company demands that the poster as advertisement represent their product more directly.
So, what about recent activity in Polish poster art? Krzysztof Dydo opened the Galeria Plakatu Kraków in 1985, which has held more than 200 poster art exhibitions in Poland alone. Since its inception the gallery has held annual poster competitions, helping to keep the struggling tradition of the art alive. Throughout this period artists like Andrzej Kilmowski not only clung to the Polish poster as an art form, but faithfully kept its spirit of individualism and interpretation. Kilmowski, in particular, used these traditions to launch a career in graphic design. Additionally, and more recently, the international scene has seen resurgence in printmaking, graphic art, and DIY culture. With these elements already on the rise , younger Polish artists have embraced the rich legacy of Polish poster art, producing some of the most important posters since the golden age of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Artists like Kaja Renkas, Homework (the duo of Joanna Górska and Jerzy Sakun), Ryszard Kaja, and Michal Książek reflect back on the imagery that made the state-supported posters so popular, but are continually influenced by contemporary culture, often bringing a touch of humor harder to find in the political tumult of the past.
Chris Smentkowski
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