Posters for freedom

On the initiative of the Polish Institute in Kyiv the National Ukrainian Art Academy opened an exhibit of Polish posters called “The Polish School of Poster Art and Its Followers.” The 33 posters on display include works by such prominent Polish classical poster artists as Jan Lenica, Henryk Tomaszewski, Jan Mlodozeniec, as Waldemar Swierzy, and the modern followers of the traditions of the world-known Polish poster school Wieslaw Wakulski and Wiktor Sadowski.

The Polish poster school’s heyday was in the 1950s-1960s. Jaroslaw Godun, the director of the Polish Institute in Kyiv explains why:

“Of course, the boom in Polish poster art in the 1950s-1960s wasn’t incidental. It was about the winds of freedom. That was the time when the Polish ‘Solidarity’ was born; at that socially difficult and constrained time intellectuals and workers felt united in their appeal for the universal freedom needed by everyone. This exhibit presents over 30 posters, all of them united around a cultural theme. However, the theme isn’t the only thing that unites them. They are all consonant in their need for freedom. The artists that started this art phenomenon introduced novel painting methods – the active color spot and the free image. The posters carried more than text, with visual comments made through metaphors, symbols and allegories.”

“The Polish poster school is an outstanding and unique phenomenon. In tough ideological times, and in a genre that wasn’t intended for art and completely subject to commercial demands, the artists managed to create unique works of art,” remarked Vitalii SHOSTIA, honored artist of Ukraine, head of the design department at the National Ukrainian Art Academy. “The classic of the Polish poster school Jan Lenica said ‘Posters are a street art and their value is measured not with what they have to say but how they do it.’ Poster artists use various techniques, from drawing to painting. It’s a real art that cultivates the people’s love for the beautiful.”