The poster belongs to the so-called job ads, i.e. printed products that are not books, magazines and printed packaging. Basically, a poster is one printed sheet whose function most often comes down to communicating. It often accompanies films and commercials. It is hung in generally accessible and visible public places - a dozen or so years ago these were usually information poles, which today are successively dismantled. Currently, the poster is gradually being replaced by electronic information screens, but it can still be found on the streets of most Polish cities.
In the case of the poster, the historical value of some of them is extremely interesting. Posters from the times of occupation or communism are highly valued not only by art collectors, but also by historians. In addition to their aesthetic values, they are a living story and tell about the problems people had to deal with several dozen years ago. Examples of such posters are, among others at the European Solidarity Center in Gdańsk. There you can find an exhibition devoted to the communist period and how Poles in the People's Republic of Poland fought for their freedom - also with the help of posters.
The Poster Department was established to promote and organize auctions dedicated to posters. Our offer includes works by exceptional Polish artists from the second half of the 20th century. Among them, it is certainly worth mentioning: Roman Cieślewicz, Eryk Lipiński, Jan Młodożeniec, Andrzej Pągowski, Waldemar Świerzy, and Henryk Tomaszewski. The poster department is our new project to help protect this form of art, important to Polish history. Of course, we are always open to new projects, so in the future, our auctions may also include posters made by artists of the younger generation.
In the 60s of the last century, the term "Polish school of posters" was coined and used to refer to Polish poster artists. They gained international recognition because their works dealt with political, social and cultural topics. In turn, the message itself was characterized by cleverness, irony and economy of form. The Polish poster enjoyed extraordinary recognition until 1989, when social, political and economic changes took place in Poland. It was then that the poster ceased to fulfill its social mission and began to lose its popularity. Although at present its function is primarily informative, it is sometimes used to promote campaigns addressing important social problems. Interestingly, in the years 2008-2009, a series of documentary films devoted to the "Polish school of poster" was created, and each episode presents a selected artist from that period. The series is called "Polnische Plakat Kunst".
If you have any questions about our auctions or posters that can be found on them, please contact us. Our experts will be happy to answer all of them. The necessary contact details can be found on our website in the Contact tab.
