Jacek Neugebauer, 1975
I knew very little about Polish Cyrk posters when I featured them last May. There wasn’t much information on the Art of Posters website and I couldn’t figure out how to search their database for dogs. Also, purchasing a poster meant sending money to Poland, and I know even though we all love and trust the Internet, that can still be scary.
Now, there is Cyrk, a New York based company that specializes in these Polish works of art with a terrific, informative website that gave me a new appreciation for these mid-century graphic gems.
Here’s a little of the Cyrk story:
“Polish circus/art posters, with their most recognizable subjects and unmatched popularity, are the quintessential posters of the golden age of the Polish School of Posters -1945 (the end of World War II) through 1989 (the fall of Communism). During this time, the Polish Government financially supported and encouraged poster art. Posters became the primary art form of the nation. The art of Polish posters attained international fame, becoming established as the best in contemporary/vintage poster art.”
Read more here. It’s fascinating and ironic that censorship and state control, two things assumed antithetical to artistic expression cultivated such spectacular works, in many ways unsurpassed in the market driven, free society of today.
Gustaw Majewski, 1965
Jerzy Treutler, 1973
Bozena Rogowska, 1974
Wiktor Gorka, 1969
Danuta Zukowska, 1973
To see all the spectacular posters (dog and non-dog) visit Cyrk’s website.
P.S. If you’re in Los Angeles, the Weidman Gallery’s 2nd Annual Polish Poster Festival is going on now with 100s of contemporary/vintage original posters for sale. Show runs until June 22.
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