Sep
4
AD Home Show had a curious booth with several Polish Posters from the ancient times of the Second World War.
In the Cold War era the vitality of the Polish Poster School attracted international attention and admiration. Although state controlled, the posters—which are characterized by sophisticated imagery and surreal tendencies—often carried powerful, oblique commentaries on the designers’ political surroundings. This exhibition presents a selection of posters from MoMA’s collection that typify the striking look and bold spirit of Polish poster design from the 1940s through the 1980s.
Let’s see some posters exhibited at the Pier 94 during the AD Home Show 2013:
Scream by Wozzeck
Moda Polska
During the political Thaw after 1956, Polish Communist authorities turned their attention from heavy industry to the promotion of consumer goods as a means of earning hard currency from the West.
This poster and the play it advertises transform ordinary people into absurdly grotesque and enigmatic figures.
Thrown into stark relief against a pitch-black ground, this truncated, leggy figure succinctly captures the leading character of Poor Cow—an eighteen-year-old runaway whose life deteriorates into objectification as a faceless prostitute.
Poland was devastated during World War II and its infrastructure ruined. In the process of reconstruction, a new social and political order was to be forged through the centralized production of industry.
The subject matter lent itself to surreal and expressive distortions of the human figure and bright, clashing colors.
