Date: 1976
Size: 33 x 23 inches
Artist: Piotr Stolarczyk
About Polish Sobriety poster: Work from the 1980s provides various examples of more overt oppositional meanings encoded in alcohol posters. The political salience of drinking became the subject of public debate in 1980, when Solidarity leaders accused the state of “pushing” alcohol and aligned their protest with abstention. Thus, the familiar theme of sobriety in the workplace took on a different ideological import, as the earlier productivist message rang hollow in the face of economic disaster. Janowski's depiction of a worker's gloved hand sealing an open vodka bottle, under the caption “Be a friend,” surely represents Solidarity, with the hand's outsized perspective indicating the power of numbers over a dangerous opponent. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2951971/)
Ready to frame !