Polish Poster Art 1952 – 1984
April 2013
During the years of Communist rule, from the postwar settlement to the 1989 collapse of the wall, artists across the length and breadth of Eastern Europe were creating an extraordinary array of work that was not always recognised in western art circles where modern art was moving to a different rhythm and driven by different political and economic circumstances – albeit that both western and ‘eastern’ artists were often drawing water from the same well.
Now, selected highlights from one of the world’s great poster collections are on display at the Ian Potter Museum of Art in Polish Poster Arts 1952-1984. The Exhibition features some 70 posters from the Polish School, and from across those three crucial decades. The posters are testament to both poster design of the time and Polish popular culture, and reveal stylistic shifts in graphic design and the significance of the Polish Poster School within the history of design worldwide.
The exhibition is the first to showcase a major component of the Polish posters held in the Gerard Herbst Poster Collection – a collection that is unique in Australia and counts as amongst only three other major public collections of Polish posters in the world. The Gerard Herbst Collection includes more than 2000 individual posters donated to the University in 1996 by Gerard Herbst, who had fled Germany in 1939 to later become an industrial designer in Melbourne, and who taught design at RMIT.
Curator Joanna Bosse has no doubt of the tremendous importance of these artworks: “Posters are often seen as a minor medium, associated with advertising and commerce,” she says. “But designers like Jerzy Flisak and Jan Lenica are acknowledged twentieth century masters. This exhibition recognises the designers as major artists, and the Polish Poster School as a significant modern art movement.”
Many of the posters advertise cultural events, including films, theatre and opera, tapping into popular-culture and exploring high-profile issues emergent over the time period 1952-1984.
The exhibition features the work of key ‘first generation’ designers Henryk Tomaszewski, Tadeusz Trepkowski and Eryk Lipinski, as well as those well-known designers that followed such as Waldemar Swierzy, Jan Lenica, Wiktor Gorka, Jan Mlodozeniec, Julian Palka, Andrzej Pagowski and Franciszek Starowieyski.
Polish Poster Art 1952 – 1984 shows at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, 800 Swanston St, until May 26.
Images:
Wojcieh Fangor (1922), Picasso 1957, France.
colour offset, 86.0 x 61.5 cm, reg. no. 1996.4666. The
University of Melbourne Art Collection. Gift of Gerard Herbst
1996. © Unknown*
Tadeusz Trepkowski (1914 – 1954), Nie! [No!]
1952, Poland. colour offset lithograph,
96.0 x 66.0 cm, reg. no. 1996.3731. The
University of Melbourne Art Collection. Gift of
Gerard Herbst 1996. © Unknown*
Jan Lenica (1928 – 2001), Alban Berg
Wozzeck 1964 Published by Teatr Wielki, Poland.
colour offset lithograph, 97.0cm x 67.5 cm,
reg. no. 1996.3729. The University of Melbourne
Art Collection, Gift of Gerard Herbst 1996.
© Unknown*
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