Poland boasts of the first `poster museum' in world, set up in Warsaw in 1968. The museum came up at a time when poster art had attained the level of a movement in Poland. In the late 1950s, painter, drawer and graphic artist Henryk Tomaszewski inspired a group of poster artists in Poland to make an indelible mark on the world stage of ``wall and board'' art. The Polish school of poster soon boasted of outstanding artists in Josef Mroszczak, Wojciech Zamecznik, Jan Mlodozeniec, Waldemar Swierzy, Jan Lenica and Franciszek Starowieyski. A time had come in Poland when no film, opera, concert or theatre premiere was complete without a poster. Posters became an element of mass culture.The embassy of Republic of Poland is organising a poster exhibition under the banner `The Street-Poster Gallery' at the India International Centre (IIC), New Delhi, from April 30 to May 8. The exhibition is part of the Polish government's celebrations to commemorate the `New Constitution of the Government of Poland', observed onMay 3 every year.
The posters encapsulate the social and political developments of Poland. For instance, there are posters that represent the propaganda of the socialist authorities in Poland during the hey-days of socialism. Interestingly, some notable impressions emerged from this movement, such as Starowieyski's famous poster representing Lenin.
Polish poster artists have their own individual styles which are very distinct. Henryk Toaszewski, for instance, revelled in the use of ``intellectual abstracts and refined symbols''. The erudite Franciszek Starowieyski, on the other hand, ``liked to shock the spectator''. Waldemar Swierzy was likened to pop art poetics. And Jan Mlodozeniec ``consciously adhered to primitivism, using simple, almost childish line and spot''.The 1970s saw the emergence of a new generation of artists who represented the student movement in Poland. They were led by Rafal Olbinski and the Wroclaw group of Jan Jaromir Aleksiun and Eugeniussz Get-Stankiewicz. Their maincharacteristics were reflective interpretation of reality, sensitivity of occurrences, non-conformity and dissension.
The came Stasys Eidrigevicius to the scene. He introduced his own unique world ``recollecting dreams and fairy-tales into the poster art''. These were years when posters were replete with ``sad figures of half-people, half-puppets with huge, always surprised eyes, occupying small wooden houses,'' notes a write-up on Polish posters.
Andrzej Pagowski, a student of Waldemar Swierzy, is one of the most recent artists to dot the map of Polish poster art. ``He could pass from extreme asceticism to superabundance of Baroque. He juggled with nostalgia, the grotesque, satire and cruelty.'' The exhibition will be inaugurated by J K Mroziewicz, the Polish ambassador to India.
--Rajiv Raghunath
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
Printer-friendly page
