1976 Polish Theatre Poster, Swieto Borysa (Boris's Day by Thomas Bernhard) - Czerniawski

Description

Date: 1976
Size: 38 x 26 inches
Artist: Czerniawski, Jerzy

About the Artist: Born in Kwiatow, Poland in 1947, Jerzy … more Date: 1976
Size: 38 x 26 inches
Artist: Czerniawski, Jerzy

About the Artist: Born in Kwiatow, Poland in 1947, Jerzy Czerniawski is a multi-disciplinary artist who works with painting, drawing and posters. Czerniawski studied at the State College of Plastic Art in Wrocław and his posters take pride of place in collections around the world, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

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.

About the Play: A wheelchair-bound Lady, who is legless but powerful enough to reinvent reality in her own way, organizes a party for her husband, who is also legless, and his thirteen companions in misfortune. A Party for Boris can be read as a parable dealing with the false freedom engendered by consumer society, whose only values ​​are property and money. Or as a critique of repressive tolerance and social infantilism. But there is also undoubtedly an autobiographical component: a personal settling of scores with the "Good Ladies" who lean over the penniless marginals to play at their expense a frivolous game of self-satisfaction.

There are some rips on the bottom margins. Ready to frame! less