Andrzej pagowski biography definition
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Polish theatre poster
The second half of the 60s and the 70s is the best period for the Polish poster. The generation masters reaches a peak of their creative abilities while, at the same time, competing with the achievements of their pupils or successors, such as Jan Jaromir Aleksiun (born in 1940), Jerzy Czerniawski (born in 1947), Stasys Eidrigevičius (born in 1949), Jakub Erol (born in 1941), Mieczysław Górowski (born in 1941), Andrzej Klimowski (born in 1949), Lech Majewski (born in 1947), Marcin Mroszczak (born in 1950), Rafał Olbiński (born in 1945), Andrzej Pągowski (born in 1953), Wiesław Rosocha (born in 1946), Wiktor Sadowski (born in 1956), Jan Sawka (born in 1946), Eugeniusz Get Stankiewicz (born in 1942), Wiesław Wałkuski (born in 1956), Mieczysław Wasilewski (born in 1942) and Wojciech Wołyński (born in 1949).
The “Polish school of poster” represents common characteristics only in the very basic assumptions – the use of metaphor, symbol and the introduction of the c
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You’ve probably noticed that nowadays nearly all movie posters look the same and every genre seems to have its own visual stylistic rules.
Contrasting blue and orange color blocks already suggest that we are about to watch an action movie. A dazzling yellow background stands for quirky indie productions. Of course there are countless other examples like the close up on a terrified eye for horror movies, a suspenseful shot of the protagonist from behind for superhero movies or the newest cliché a close up on a character’s face with lots of spaced out clean typography.
You get the jist of it, once production companies find a successful marketing recipe they’ll stick to it as long as it sells tickets. But for a few decades a movement in a communist country had been existing that pushed its individual style to a new extreme, in ways that even for today's standards seem absolutely crazy and radical: Welcome to the insane history of Polish movie posters.
You might have heard of g
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Maria Rajczuk-Żukowska:In biographical notes about you, one can read, ‘Received a diploma in the poster studio of Waldemar Świerzy’. What was it that Świerzy passed on to you, if anything?
Andrzej Pągowski: Courage. It is very important that one is not afraid of work.
Is anybody trying to imitate your work at present?
Pągowski: Supposedly I am responsible for the disgusting lettering that has lately spread so profusely in Polish posters. It is true that I was one of the first to use it. I suspect that a large group of friends decided that if I was allowed to use it, then so could they! I am very worried about that – I was never very good with letters. Perhaps one day I will have someone cooperating with me who will do all the written content for me. In general, though, it is easier to copy one or other solutions from my posters than to imitate Pągowski as a whole. I change my approach to subjects too often to create my own ‘school’.
Original from beginning to en