Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Roman Cieślewicz (the metaphysical poster)



Cieślewicz (1930-1996) transformed the poster into a metaphysical medium to express ideas that would be difficult to articulate verbally. 


Cieślewicz brought a number of techniques to graphic design: 

enlarging, 
montage, 
halftones images to a scale that turns the dots into texture, 
setting up an interplay between two levels of information: the image and the dots they create. 


Cieślewic worked in poster art, book typography, photomontage and collage. 


What's Cieślewicz style?


1- Surreal, 
 2- Russian constructivist avant-garde of the 1920s + the feel of Blok (the Polish group), 
3- Romantic poetic vision + Cold rationalism, 
4- Symmetry pictorial elements.



Major awards: WAG Trepkowski Prize 1955; Film Poster Exhibition, Warsaw 1956, Central Film Office Prize; International Film Poster Exhibition, Karlove Vary 1964, first prize; National Poster Biennale, Katowice, Silver Medal 1965, Gold Medal 1967, 1971; International Poster Biennale, Warsaw, Gold Medal 1972, Bronze Medal 1984; Polish Poster Biennale, Katowice 1973, Gold Medal; Poster Biennale, Lahti 1993, second prize.