Drawing on a rich Central European tradition in graphic arts, artists of the Polish School of Posters (late 1940s through the 1980s,) created bold, at times lyrical, surreal and confrontational imagery to advertise cultural events. This was in a time and place where little or no advertising was permitted.
These works were not simple objective illustrations, but personal interpretations by the artists of their subject and the world they lived in. Though the communist state controlled all printed media, the often subversive subject matter of these images managed to elude the censors. Or, perhaps the authorities were complicit in tolerating their distribution, thus allowing the artists individual expression in this very public and accessible art form.
These posters from the 1980s truly captured the zeitgeist of those last ten years of failing Soviet domination. For this reason, they hold a special place in history.
Posters from this post WW II period had a great impact on graphic design in poster art and are held in high regard internationally. Prints from the Polish Poster School are held in many museum collections; notably the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Library of Congress in Washington DC, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Musée de la Publicité in Le Louvre in Paris as well as in countless cultural and university libraries around the world.
Over 200 of these prints came into my possession in 1990, the year after the fall of the Berlin wall. They were never used in distribution and were carefully stored and undisturbed since that time.
With few exceptions, most are in excellent to near perfect vintage condition. Most are original prints and the few exceptions are vintage official reprints. Please contact the seller if you need more information about the condition of an individual poster. If flaws exist, they may be minor edge creases or minor (less than 1 cm) border tears. The photographs of the posters presented here are of the original posters for sale.
Most Polish posters were printed in the standard B1 size, approx. 98x68 cm (38.2x26.8 in) and less commonly the A1 size, approx. 84x59 cm (33.1x23.2 in.) The actual size of the poster can vary slightly.
