Witold Wojtkiewicz (1879 - 1909)

Witold Wojtkiewicz (1879 - 1909)

Studied at the Drawing School in Warsaw under Adam Bodowski and Jan Kauzik.

Attended classes at the Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow under Leon Wyczółkowski.

In 1903-1904 he worked as an illustrator for the Krakow-based weekly Liberum Veto.

In 1905 he became a member of the Grupa Pieciu (Group of Five).

Painter, draughtsman and illustrator, Wojtkiewicz was a representative of the "Young Poland" movement.

His paintings are distinguished by a haunting, almost childlike vision of distorted gesture, fantasy, and color, often challenging aristocracy and pastoralism; a bizarre pre-Surrealistic Expressionism that announces many themes, trends, contrasts, and eccentricities that would become prevalent throughout Polish 20th century art.

I added Wojtkiewicz to this blog because he is one of my all-time favorite painters, especially as it concerns his work from around 1904-1906.  On deeper inspection I see little resemblance to other more renowned expressionists that were his contemporaries. 

Franciszek Starowieyski (1930-2009)

Franciszek Starowieyski (1930-2009)

Studied painting at the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts under Wojciech Weiss and Adam Marczynski (1949-52)

Studied Painting at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts under Michal Bylina, and graduated in 1955.

For a number of years he divided his time between Warsaw and Paris, intensively making some 300+ posters, quickly becoming one of the finest representatives of the first Polish school of posters. 

His posters are often full of drama, tension, exuberance, grandeur, and ornament. At once both grotesque and beautiful, his baroque style and macabre attention to anatomy often begets the surreal and fantastic. 

His penchant for 17^th century draftsmanship is apparent in his masterful use of chiaroscuro and calligraphy. He often worked ambidextrously.

He was the first Pole to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1985). 

Jan Lenica (1928 - 2001)

Jan Lenica (1928 - 2001)

Studied at the Poznań College of Music.

Studied at the Architecture Department of Warsaw Polytechnic.

Jan Lenica became neither a musician nor an architect. His father, Alfred Lenica, pushed piano lessons on him.  Interestingly, later in life Alfred Lenica became a well-known abstract painter (More on Alfred Lenica later.)  As fate would have it, Jan Lenica emerged as a talented painter and became an illustrator, stage designer, graphic designer, poster artist, and animator. Allegedly he coined the phrase "Polish School of Poster."

From 1963 - 1986 he lived and worked in France.

From 1987 - 2001 he lived and worked in Berlin.

Posters: Jan Lenica started off as a cartoonist for Pins.  His style, often satirical and simplistic, transitioned well into Poster art where he developed a distinctive, almost painterly aesthetic, highlighting abstract use of color and line.

Animation and Films:  Lenica's first films were cut-out stop animations. In both theme and style, his animations built upon his preexisting work in cartoon and poster. In 1957, Lenica produced his first animation Był sobie raz (Once Upon A Time) along with Walerian Borowczyk (More on Borowczyk later).  The pair would henceforth work on many short animated films often experimental in nature, somewhat adult in theme and absurdity, but almost childlike in spirit and imagination. These films would go on to inspire the likes of Roman Polanski, the Brothers Quay, and Terry Gilliam, amongst others.  In 1979, he was the first professor of the animation class at the University of Kassel, Germany. He also taught at Harvard University, Cambridge MA, 1974 and Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, 1986-1994.

The first thing I did in Kraków during my last visit was to proceed from the train station directly to Stolarska 8-10, the address of Krzysztof Dydo's (more on Krzysztof Dydo later) Galeria Plakatu, Krakow (http://www.cracowpostergallery.com/) to purchase the book Jan Lenica: Labirynt by Ewa Czerwiakowska and Tomasz Kujawski. On a previous to visit to Galeria Plakatu I purchased my first Polish poster:  Lenica's Schach Und Kunst (Chess and Art.)

Roman Cieślewicz (1930 - 1996)

Roman Cieślewicz (1930 - 1996)

Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow.

Employed at WAG, a Polish state graphics agency,  Ty i Ja (You and I), a Polish illustrated magazine, 1950-70,  Elle 1965-69, and the MAFIA ad agency 1969-72. He became a naturalized French citizen in 1971.

Cieślewicz worked in poster art, book design, typography, photomontage, and collage. He remains one of the most famous poster designers of the Polish school. He is notorious for making visually jolting images with particular attention to composition, color, contrast, and experimentation. Outside the world of Polish poster he may be most internationally known for his work as a director of Elle magazine. Interestingly, he was once married to prominent Polish sculptor Alina Szpacznikow and is credited for the photographs of her chewing gum sculptures Photosculptures.