Date: 1970
Size: 26.5 x 39 inches
Artist: Maciej Urbaniec
About the Poster: Beginning in the 1950s and through the 1980s, the Polish School of Posters combined the aesthetics of painting with the succinctness and simple metaphor of the poster. It developed characteristics such as painterly gesture, linear quality, and vibrant colors, as well as a sense of individual personality, humor, and fantasy. It was in this way that the polish poster was able to make the distinction between designer and artist less apparent.
Polish posters have come to stand apart from the advertising design conventions fostered in Europe during the 20th century. It was during the communist regime, a time when culture was closely monitored by the state, that Polish artists found liberation in poster art. Ironically, this foremost public art form became ground for individual expression. During that period, the cultural institutions, of theatre and cinema especially, flourished as they were funded by government agencies. Artists freshly out of the fine arts academy flocked towards poster production as the demand for this art was rapidly growing. The result became some of the most unique and expressive posters the world has ever seen - and artworks in themselves.
Contemporary Polish circus posters emerged in the early 1960s as a genre of the Polish School of posters. They are characterized by their display of aesthetic qualities such as strong colors, metaphors, animals, humor and linear designs. They are usually based on a single theme and not meant to be advertisements - more like an attempt to interest the passerby in an upcoming circus. Circus posters, whether Polish or American, are considered highly collectible and with images as strong as these, we can certainly see why.
About the Artist: Maciej Urbaniec was a graphic designer, poster artist, and one of the pioneers of the Polish Poster School. He was born on 1 September 1925 in Zwierzyniec Lubelski near Zamość, and died on 19 May 2004 in Nowy Sącz.
Describing Urbaniec’s posters with a few words and finding their common denominator and a subject requires a closer inspection of the dramatic tension interwoven through the perfect arrangement of details and emptiness, the contrast between dark, pensive jokes and the joy of working with all graphical tools and styles.
Urbaniec was a graphical time traveller. We can interpret his posters in various ways: as motives entangled in jokes, as style clashes, as courageous shocking with kitsch and simplicity, as playfully reworked postcards from different historical periods. (Source: https://culture.pl/en/artist/maciej-urbaniec)
In great condition and ready to frame. There is a small tear in the bottom right corner, please see photos.