NAJLEPSI POLSCY ILUSTRATORZY THE BEST POLISH ILLUSTRATORS posters artists EBOOK No 003/12 EN VIRTUAL GALLERY The series includes 161 eBooks in two language versions https://gallery.beslow.pl THE BEST POLISH ILLUSTRATORS is a non-profit project. It is thanks to the trust and money of the Readers and the support of Partners that the implementation of this project is possible. We thank you for your trust and support. SLOW Foundation 2020 THE ROADS AND CROSSROADS OF THE POLISH POSTER Text: Grzegorz J. Budnik (translation: Agnieszka Nowosad) Political transformations which occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s had a significant outcome in the form of changes in the economic and social life of Polish society as well as in Polish culture. The changes have also been visible in the area of graphic design as well as artistic activity related to poster. The poster before changes and after them is, in fact, two different phenomena. The Polish school of posters is one of the phenomena of Polish art of the period Labour Protection, the Polish Airlines LOT, the Tourist Information Centre, Orbis, the frames of which are marked by the events connected with the political Moda Polska, Polski Len, the Polish Fishing Association, Totalizator Sportowy, thaw in 1956 and the social opposition in 1980 together with further results the Polish Red Cross as well as many state theatres and publishing houses. in the form of martial law (1981‒1983) and political changes after 1989. Huge demand for posters as well as no interference in the artistic form, The social unrest in Poznań in 1956 finished with a change in the position provided that the content did not pose any danger for the political system of of the first secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party. It was Władysław the country, created good conditions for Polish poster artists and enabled Gomułka, who, analogically to the position of Nikita Khrushchev, the first them to release from the traditional relations occurring between an ordering secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, significantly limited party and a contractor in situations where capital economy was functioning. the repressive actions in implementation of the communist system. In the A huge area of artistic autonomy released the artists from pressure of the culture area, censorship was released for a certain period and artists had ordering parties as regards the artistic form of posters, pressure imposed more freedom to take decisions as regards the means of artistic expression. by the assumed marketing objectives and the adopted strategies of obtaining Polish artists rejected the Social Realism, which was dogmatic as regards profits. Artists were able to create works fulfilling their artistic aspirations. context and devoid of any authentic influence, and started creating works The poster became an individualised artefact through which the personality reflecting the contemporary artistic tendencies of Western Europe focused of a graphic artist could be revealed. It was transferred from the area of mainly around the French expressive abstractionism, including the allusive applied art into the area of pure art. Such a combination of favourable abstraction and informel. conditions created the foundation of the phenomenon known as the Polish school of posters. The Polish poster, looking for its artistic language and means of conveying content through image in the late 1950s, reached its final shape in the In the 1960s and 1970s, the Polish poster was developing based on the next decade. New political authorities, having noticed the propaganda experience of Polish arts. It reflected the artistic orientations typical for ineffectiveness of the art related to Social Realism, were favourable towards them. For obvious reasons, the poster referred to these trends in Polish new artistic formulas undertaken by young artists. With a view to using painting, drawing and workshop graphics which, due to the figurative the outburst of artistic potential, the institutional framework was established system of imaging, were fit to conveying contents in a manner expected for further development of Polish art, also in the area of graphic design from the poster. including poster. The artistic language of the propaganda poster of the first two post-war In 1955, Wydawnicto Artystyczno-Graficzne (the Arts and Graphics Publishing decades (Tadeusz Gronowski, Lucjan Jagodziński, Helena and Juliusz Krajewski, House) was established, which started to publish “Projekt” – a bimonthly Konstanty Maria Sopoćko, Tadeusz Trepkowski and Włodzimierz Zakrzewski) undertaking the theoretical issues of interest for Polish design graphics. In 1968, was discredited and, thus, devoid of any carrying capacity. On the other the Poster Museum was opened in Wilanów as a branch of the National Museum hand, the tradition of the advertising poster of the interwar period with in Warsaw. The institution was supposed to record the artistic achievements its specific decorative character (Tadeusz Gronowski, Jan Mucharski and of Polish poster artists. Regular exhibitions, organised from 1965 as a part of Konstanty Maria Sopoćko) was already anachronic in the new era. Neither the Polish Poster Biennial in Katowice and from 1966 as a part of the International did anyone want to refer to the tradition of Polish avant-garde connected with Poster Biennial in Warsaw, were devoted to presentation of what was happening the Constructivists (Henryk Berlewi, Henryk Stażewski, Władysław Strzemiński, in poster art. Poster artists were commissioned by many state institutions related Mieczysław Szczuka and Teresa Żarnowerówna) due to the emerging negative to culture, industry and administration. They performed orders for the Arts and attitudes towards geometric abstraction although, still in the 1960s, a return Graphics Publishing House, the “Agpol” Foreign Trade Publishing House, the Polish to this system of imaging could be observed, yet in accordance with the new Film, the Centre of Film Rental, the Central Bureau of Art Exhibitions, the Polish formula assuming the role of an emotional factor in the rational system of Jazz Association, the Polish Foreign Trade Chamber, the Central Institute of creation and receipt (op-art, post-paintery abstraction and minimal art). In the 1960s, i.e. at the time when the Polish poster began to obtain its mature The third artistic trend which influenced the Polish poster of the 1960s artistic form, the expressive abstractionism lost its significance and was and 1970s was pop-art, mostly connected with the American and British replaced by the movements returning to figurativeness (neo-figurative art, environment. Pop-art was a reaction to the expressive and elitist art of pop-art and hyperrealism) as well as movements turning towards geometric the expressive abstractionism. It juxtaposed this art with the art easy in receipt, abstractionism (op-art, post-paintery abstraction and minimal art). Moreover, referring to the commercialised social expectations, the interests, sensitivity the movement appeared combining the forms of artistic expression from and imagination shaped by the standards of mass culture. The objects of various areas of art (environment, happening and conceptualism). While interest of the pop-art version of posters were mass-produced objects of geometric abstraction and conceptualism did not have any significant influence daily use or personality models created by mass culture – pop-cultural idols. on the Polish poster, the artistic systems of neo-figurative art and pop-art The imaging used elements of advertisements, photography and comics. As as well as the surrealist painting tradition were adapted by Polish poster regards the selection of the means of expression, except for manual activities, artists. The influence of hyperrealism and geometric abstractionism can be photomontage, collage, serigraphy and mixed techniques (combine painting) noticed to a lesser extent. were used. Introduction of purely functional objects into composition and artistic affirmation of the existing elements of reality were a reference Neo-figurative art was a reaction to the progressive process of dehuman- to the tradition of dadaism. It is from dadaism that pop-art took the type of isation of civilisation and culture. It undertook the problem matter of dangers artistic activity which involved levelling of “the seriousness” of the artistic resulting from civilisation changes caused by the development of industry, form. A typical feature of the pop-art poster trend is resignation from sublime technology and science. As a protest against the transformations, the artists aesthetic values, frequently elimination of the element of individualism and connected with this trend postulated a return of art to a human being as its replacement with the type of creation devoid of any features of manual regards content (the human figure understood as the main theme) as well as activity with a reduced or even eliminated texture, a smoothly laid colour, creation and perception (the artistic form comprehended as the emotional acting through a synthesised image form brought to the role of a sign intended record of the artist’s perception of human existence problems as well as for quick perception analogical to quick consumption. adjustment of the artistic form to the cognitive abilities of the viewer and using of such means of expression which involve the viewer emotionally). The Polish poster did not, actually, accept the pop-art formula rejecting as The new figuration,