The Legacy of Polish Poster design

Before the era of globalized entertainment made movie posters look the same in every country, Polish artists were creating their own versions for the internal market. What resulted was a whole school of artists trained in the art of the poster. This article presents a short historical look at how this movement was born and how it developed, from its art-related beginnings at the end of the 19th Century to the golden era of the film posters throughout the 20th Century.

The quality of the graphic design on all of them was superb, as was the creativity they displayed.

Poles strongly identified, not with the cowboys of the movies, but with the indians.

Just when I thought I had seen it all at the outer limits of the Polish poster, I discover Polish book covers. Fans of Polish art and design have until now relied on fantastic posts at sites like 50 Watts to get their fix. I'm now aware that many of them can be found in a hardback book, curated by Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński and entitled One Thousand Polish Book Covers, which seems to be the definitive tome on this incredibly deep and diverse visual world.

The boastful, expertly equestrian, Plains Indians bedecked in feathers are actually very very similiar to Poles when one thinks about it.

Only on the surface

The similarity between Plains Indians and Poles stems from an innate spirit of aristocratic cockiness that both peoples share which is essential rather than superficial.

Did you reveal that terrible fact to him?

This guy was a rabid Pole-hater.

"they beat you! they beat you"

I don't get it. Beat = bić? "Biją cię! Biją cię" ???

Their free spirit was primal

When on the other hand ,Poland's free spirit was a fruit of complex and rich civilisation with laws, custom and legislations

Ironside, you underestimate the complexity of the Plains Indian society.

The Plains Indians by having domesticated and militarized the horse became the central continental overlords of North America just as the Poles did in central Europe with their own variety of artillery supported equestrian based military technology.

The parallels are there for anyone with eyes to see, but you insist upon the distinguishing the Plains Indians as primitive and the Poles as civilized in a myopic manner.

Here in Southern California we have a museum named for the cowboy/actor Gene Autrey and several years ago they had an exhibition of Polish movie posters that had been created to advertise Amercan Westerns when they played in Poland. The quality of the graphic design on all of them was superb, as was the creativity they displayed. I.E. The poster for the Richard Harris film titled "A Man Called Horse" featured a bizzare looking horse/man that wasnt a classical centaur but rather had a man's body, a horse's head, and the look of agony. The most fascinating aspect of the exhibition was that the posters revealed the fact that Poles strongly identified, not with the cowboys of the movies, but with the indians. Now I see that this is totally understandable given Poland's history and style. The boastful, expertly equestrian, Plains Indians bedecked in feathers are actually very very similiar to Poles when one thinks about it.

against that ?:

Read my posts Ironside, I didn't say the Plains Indians were the military match for the winged hussars, but rather that the Plains Indians and the Poles have a similiar chivalrous spirit that resulted from a similiar equestrian tradition. The Polish posters I saw at the Autrey Museum indicated that some Poles felt this way too. You, on the other hand, seem to be mired in an outdated form of European chauvinism. Both peoples admirably defended their steppe lands against foreigners and both peoples lost, but they both kept their noble spirits alive. Indeed, I have paid the Poles a compliment by comparing them to warriors like the Souix, but if you want to be offended by having your ancestors compared to non-white aboriginal Americans, then so much the worse for you.

Poetic humor is a quality rarely found in the fine arts.  Rafal Olbinski has this gift.  He wants to show us that our imagination is a magical world which we are recreating forever.  He draws us into a different universe, and forces us to use our eyes to participate in a marvelous world which is the true dimension of dreams.

Rafal Olbinski is a surrealist artist, who has become world famous for his posters and designs.
Rafal was born in Poland, and originally trained as an architect in Warsaw. In 1981 he emigrated to the US, where he worked as a painter, illustrator and designer.

The Embassy of Poland in Delhi is exhibiting select works of poster art from the 1960’s to the present. The exhibition, “Polish School of Poster Art” was inaugurated on 24 May and will be open until 30 May.