A Melting Pot of Influence
Many of the 20th Century’s most consequential statesmen and women have pointed out the unique nature of Poland within Europe.
Ronald Reagan called it “the center of European civilization.” Historian Norman Davis called it “the natural bridge between East and West”. And the now-President of Poland Andrzej Duda noted that the country has a “very strategic location within Europe.”
Poland’s central, strategic, geographical placement has been both a blessing and a curse for the country. It has opened it up to a wide variety of cultures – from Slavic in the east to Germanic in the west – but also opened it up to the threat of war.
With that in mind, this article will take a look at how the poster art of Poland has depicted the country’s unique position, as well as how the art itself incorporates both national and international influences.
Here are 12 posters which depict the beauty and artistry of Poland over the last 100+ years:
Wozzeck - Alban Berg - Jan Lenica 1979
Jan Lenica’s richly colourful poster was used to advertise the Polish National Opera’s production of Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck.
Telling the story of “ordinary people striving for dignity in the face of abuse and brutality”, according to the MoMA, the heavy content of Wozzeck required a poster that was going to capture the opera’s dense themes.
Lenica, an accomplished artist, was more than up to the task. This poster combines psychedelia with pop art, with elements of surrealism. Commentators have noted the political context behind this poster – the fact that tensions were rising in the Soviet Union at the time – which might explain the twisted howl that the disembodied mouth in this poster seems to be giving. Look at how the various reds seem to give this image a sinuous quality – like human muscle being exposed. Its graphicness is most definitely its strength.
The poster gained cult status in Western Europe and went on to be awarded a Gold Medal at the first Warsaw International Poster Biennale in 1966.
Wozzeck – Alban Berg – Jan Lenica
Cyrk – Circus Elephant – Jerzy Treutler
Cyrk - Circus Elephant - Jerzy Treutler 1975
If you’re familiar with Polish poster art in any way, you might already know that ‘Cyrk’ (circus) posters are an important part of the art form’s canon – especially during the Soviet era.
In this poster, Jerzy Treutler playfully depicts a pop-art rendering of an elephant.
But why playfulness? And why the need to hire a famous artist to design a circus poster?
Well, Polish state agencies placed a high value on the merits of circus entertainment, so they were all for pushing any art which helped get customers under the circus tent. With Treutler’s poster, the circus image was modernised and reshaped, but it was very much accessible to the modern population.
Nie! - Tadeusz Trepkowski 1952
Tadeuzq Trapkowski is widely regarded as one of Poland’s most influential poster designers, with his posters channelling Polish political, social and cultural concerns.
With Nie! (Polish for ‘No!’), he turns his attention to the memory of WWII (which had only finished a mere seven years earlier).
Nie! captures the devastation that WWII bombs caused to Polish architecture, with the depiction of a flaming building from within the silhouette of a bomb vessel.
The actual word ‘Nie’ is open to interpretation here, but it could be argued that Trepkowski is making a general plea for the world to say ‘no’ to future wars.
Nie! – Tadeusz Trepkowski
Warsaw Autumn 1971 – Herbert Hilscher
Warsaw Autumn 1971 – Herbert Hilscher 1971
Hubert Hilscher was a highly successful artist who hailed from the Polish School of Posters. He has been praised for his work on multiple levels, and in particular for his creativity and innovation when it comes to posters.
‘Warsaw Autumn’ was designed for the Autumn Music Festival in the country’s capital. It features a delightful pop art design, with colourful rectangular boxes taking up most of the poster. Not how their proportions change as your eye moves across the poster itself, which gives the image real dynamism.
Visit Poland - Maciej Hübner 1963
It might surprise many Western audiences to learn that the Polish State strongly advocated for tourism through the late 1950s and into the 1970s, even as the country remained under the grip of Soviet Eastern Bloc rule.
In fact, it is often overlooked just how important tourism was for maintaining links between different Soviet states.
Hepburn’s poster gives an idyllic depiction of Poland and its natural surroundings. Here, a carefree, swimsuit-wearing woman waves happily, as she crosses a lake on a bikeboat.
Visit Poland – Maciej Hübner
Sztuka (The Society of Polish Artists) – Teodor Axentowicz
Sztuka (The Society of Polish Artists) - Teodor Axentowicz 1898
By the mid-1890s, poster art was taking off in a big way across Western Europe – and, in particular, in Paris.
The trend was so compelling that even Polish artists were looking West for inspiration. Teodor Axentowicz, a Romanian-born Polish painter and graphic artist, emerged as one of the leading creators of his time around this period.
‘Sztuka’ was designed ahead of an exhibition of the work of the Society of Polish Artists in 1898. As you can clearly see, Axentowicz was inspired by the Art Nouveau style which was so prominent at the time – but he was also influenced by Polish folkloric imagery.
Warsaw Autumn 1975 - Jan Mlodozeniec 1975
Jan Mlodozeniec’s 1975 poster was designed for the 19th International Festival of Contemporary Music (also known as ‘Warsaw Autumn’).
As with Hilscher’s poster, Mlodozeniec makes vivid use of colour (this is autumn, after all!)
And, with his simple, minimal, but evocative style, he seems to be aiming to make his poster both advert and logo simultaneously.
Warsaw Autumn 1975 – Jan Mlodozeniec
Two Way Stretch – Maciej Hübner
Two Way Stretch - Maciej Hübner 1963
Created to promote the release of the British film, Two Way Stretch, in Poland, Hübner’s poster is worth including for the simple fact that it wryly subverts normal film poster design conventions which were present elsewhere in the world.
Rather than feature the recognisable starring actor Pete Sellers on the poster, Hübner opts for surrealism and symbolism in his image (closer, in many ways, to 1920s Soviet avant-garde).
By capturing the themes, emotions, symbols and character of a film – rather than simply depicting a scene from it – Hübner was perhaps comparable to other successful film artists, such as Saul Bass.
The 4th National Folk Festival - Waldemar Swierzy 1970
You may have already noticed a trend by now – Polish poster artists tended to rise to the occasion when they were called upon to create festival posters.
Such is the case with Swierzy’s image for the 4th National Folk Festival, which took place in the city of Płock in central Poland.
With this being a music festival poster in the year 1970, it clearly owes a great deal to the psychedelia of American music festival posters of the late ‘60s.
The 4th National Folk Festival – Waldemar Swierzy
1970 Youth Culture Festival – Boguslaw Lustyk
1970 Youth Culture Festival - Boguslaw Lustyk 1970
As with Swierzy’s poster, Lustyk finds the benefits of fitting a kaleidoscope of colours into a minimal design, all for the purpose of highlighting a festival.
But there is something of a formulaic element to the iconography of this poster – with its tired depiction of a dove cutout of a rainbow of colours. It’s also very different from the energy and creativity of Lustyk’s other posters.
In retrospect, the poster might tell us more about the political context of the time than anything else. In Soviet Poland during the shifting years of the late 1960s and early 1970s, was there a sense that the State didn’t really know what to make of Polish youth and what they wanted/how to advertise to them?
Short Circuit 2 - Jakub Erol 1989
With this poster, artist Jakub Erol brings the semi-intelligent American robot known as ‘Johnny No. 5’ to life in a way that the film’s creators could likely never have envisioned.
There’s a lot to love about this poster, including the way that Erol is unrestrained in his use of colour, the way that Johnny No. 5 is as animated on the static poster as he is on screen, and the way that none of this quite prepare you for what this movie is actually about.
Short Circuit 2 – Jakub Erol
The Spy Came Out of the Sea – Wiktor Gork
The Spy Came Out of the Sea - Wiktor Gork 1966
Wiktor Gork created the film poster for Jewgienij Szerstobitow’s spy thriller film Szpeig Wyszedl Z Morza (The Spy Came Out of the Sea).
In the poster, Gork cleverly hints at mystery, murder, and intrigue, with a silhouetted blue body appearing the be just under the surface of the water. If it appears to draw thematic similarities to Saul Bass’s Anatomy of a Murder poster, that should give you an insight into how Polish posters artists were inspired beyond their borders.
Polish art was alive even under repression and conflict
Despite the turbulence of the 20th Century, Polish poster art thrived, with its best-known artists looking to both the east and the west for inspiration (as well as looking for local inspiration which, in this culturally-rich country, could be found just about everywhere).
