from the world-famous Polish School of Posters, recognized as the best in contemporary poster art comparable to France's La Belle Époque of the 1890s. |
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New Release: 11/03
FREE 2003 Cracow Jewish Culture Festival poster
A Gift of Art for Chanukah
In celebration of Chanukah, the poster created for the Cracow, Poland 13th Jewish Culture Festival by the Polish-American artist, Rafal Olbinski, will be sent FREE with every Jewish poster ordered before Dec 31 @ www.contemporaryposters.com
The Jewish Culture Festival, which began in 1988, is held during the early summer in the Kazmierz section of Cracow (the factory site in Schindler's List). The Festival has become one of the preeminent forums for showcasing Jewish culture and encouraging Polish-Jewish dialogue. Information & photos of the Festival can be found at www.jewishfestival.pl
Rafal Olbinski (b.1945) is a recipient of over 100 awards and currently teaches at the School of Visual Arts, NYC. His provocative surrealistic art, represented in private & public collections, frequently can be seen on magazine covers as well as New York and other cities' cultural posters. (Click here for Olbinski's CYRK & Non-CYRK posters.)
Jewish posters are one of the genre of posters created by artists of the renowned Polish School of Posters (1950-89) - recognized as the best in contemporary poster art, comparable to La Belle Époque posters of the 1890s. The Jewish posters were designed during the communist era to promote the Jewish theater, opera, film & exhibitions. They are original vintage posters, linen-backed, approx. 27"w x 39"h and priced from $125.
News Release: 02/03
Payne Gallery
MORAVIAN COLLEGE
PRESS RELEASE: NEXT EXHIBITION
Contact: Diane Radycki, Payne Gallery Director 610.861.1627
Michael Wilson, Public Relations 610.861.1365
EASTERN EUROPEAN PRINTS AND posters
featuring the Charles E. Merrill, Jr. donation
and
Polish "Cyrk" Circus Posters
23 January - 2 March 2003
opening reception: 23 January 7:30 - 9:00p.m.
EAST EUROPEAN PRINTS AND posters offers a look into the artistic production in this part of the world that has not readily been available. It will feature a selection of 25 colorful "CYRK" Circus Posters created before and 16 black-and-white etchings made before and after the collapse of Communism in 1989.
The post-1989 etchings were collected by Charles E. Merrill, Jr. and donated to Moravian College in 1988, Himself an artist, Mr. Merrill has long championed the arts and culture of Eastern Europe, (Two of his own works will be exhibited along with this collection of prints.) His donation offers an intense, personal vision of artistic life and truth being created in Eastern Europe today. Now that the censors are off, this vision is very different from the official one that was once sponsored by the state.
During the Communist era, all posters had to be approved by an agency of the Communist Party. Artists got their messages across to the public by creating images with hidden meanings. The 25 original posters, on display in the U.S. for the first time, include many hard-to-find images and 5 "censored" posters.
This exhibition of prints is part of Payne Gallery's ongoing program of exhibitions that focus on artistic media and that support the offerings of the Art Department of Moravian College. Printmaking is the most democratic of media because the printed image is reproducible and circulated, sometimes widely (such as the CYRK Posters) and sometimes in small editions (such as the etchings in the Merrill donation). Either way, the opportunity for communication is fundamentally different from the unique statement that artists make in painting, This exhibition affords our students and the viewing public the advantage of seeing both artistic skills and artful communication strategies at the same time.
PAYNE GALLERY of Moravian College is located in the Priscilla Payne Hurd Campus of Moravian College, between Church and Main Streets in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 am to 4pm; and from 6pm to 8pm Tuesday through Thursday.
For additional information, please telephone 610.861.1680 (weekends 610.861.1667)
PAYNE GALLERY is open 11:00 am to 4:00 pm Tuesday through Sunday, and 6:30 to 8:30 pm Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. It is closed Mondays, major holidays and during school breaks. Admission is free and free parking is available.
THE PRISCILLA PAYNE HURD CENTER FOR MUSIC AND ART, with Payne Gallery and Foy Concert Hall, is located on the Priscilla Payne Hurd Campus of Moravian College in Historic Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
MORAVIAN COLLEGE is in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, sixty miles 'north of Philadelphia and ninety miles west of New York City.
PRISCILLA PAYNE HURD CENTER FOR MUSIC AND ART
MAILING ADDRESS: 1200 MAIN STREET, BETHLEHEM, PA 18018-6650 . 610861-1680 . FAX: 610 861-1682
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News Release: 05/02
Contemporaryposters.com offers free shipping to celebrate enhanced website
Contemporary Posters (www.contemporaryposters.com), the premier website for CYRK... original 1960s-1970s Polish art/circus posters, will offer free shipping through August 31st to celebrate the introduction of its recently enhanced website.
Changes in the website include: (1) a new search feature for the gallery of 100+ CYRK... Polish art/circus posters. CYRK posters can now be viewed by category: subject, gift, style, price, color & artist. (2) new features explain the hidden meanings in many CYRK posters, show photos of examples of Decorating with CYRK art for any room in the home or office... for kids & for teens and offer attractive framing for any poster. And (3) new galleries of Polish Exhibit, Film, Jazz, Jewish, Opera & Theater posters by the artists who designed CYRK posters. The new poster galleries illustrate the diversity & genius of these artists of the Polish School of Posters who have been likened to the French La Belle Époque artists of the 1890s.
The enhanced website is more informative, easier to navigate and offers a wider variety of poster art. The beauty & enchantment of the colorful CYRK posters - the most highly acclaimed posters of the world famous Polish School of Posters (post World War II-1945 until the fall of Communism-1989) are recognized as the best in contemporary poster art. All posters are original (no reproductions), in mint condition. All CYRK posters are linen-backed as are all fine antique/vintage posters. Linen-backing prevents damage and keeps the poster in mint condition. CYRK posters are priced from $125 to $850.
News Release: 11/01
Decorating with CYRK art at Home Design Show
Contemporary Posters exhibits CYRK posters for home & office
Contemporary Posters' booth at the New York Home Design Show, November 1-3, will present ideas on how to decorate with CYRK art. More than 100 original CYRK... Polish art/circus posters will be displayed. Also, on view will be photos of CYRK posters in various settings in the home & office as well as recommendations of posters for specific rooms e.g. kids', teens', NY sophisticated black, LA sunny red.
Decorating with art is a well-recognized way of creating unique and attractive surroundings. CYRK posters, with their compelling graphic images and wide range of styles, subjects, messages & coloring lend themselves to most locations. Styles range from real to surreal to ideal, subjects from faces to felines to forms, coloring from pale to presumptuous to psychedelic and messages from clear to concealed to cryptic.
CYRK posters are the quintessential posters of the world-famous Polish School of Posters (post World War II-fall of Communism). The Polish School of Posters, recognized as the best in contemporary poster art, was encouraged and supported by the government under Communism. It became a national treasure that set the standards others follow and possessed a genius not seen in one country, at one time, since France's La Belle Époque of the 1890s. More than 75 Polish artists were employed by the State to create posters on specified themes: film, jazz, art, travel, opera & theater in addition to CYRK.
Original CYRK posters are approximately 27"w x 39"h, and affordably priced from $125 to $850. All are in mint condition, linen-backed (as are all fine posters) and had been printed in Poland from 1965-1989 in limited quantities. CYRK posters can currently be seen 24/7 at www.contemporaryposters.com and will be exhibited at the Contemporary Posters' booth #158, the Architectural Digest/Home Design Show, "a show of great design", Jacob Javits Center, NYC, Thurs & Fri 10-8, Sat 10-7.
News Release: 10/01
Contemporary Polish Posters at October Poster Fair!
Preview of Polish Consulate spring exhibit
The Contemporary Posters' booth at the New York International Vintage Poster Fair, October 26-28, will be previewing a poster exhibit to be held at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland (NYC), April 2002 - the time of the 59th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Original posters from the world-famous Polish School of Posters (post World War II-fall of Communism) will be shown. Featured will be the posters of Polish Jewish culture & CYRK...Polish art/circus posters.
At the fall Poster Fair, Contemporary Posters will display more than 100 different images of Jewish culture & CYRK posters -- the quintessential posters of the Polish School of Posters. Jewish culture posters include a variety of topics: Warsaw Jewish Theater (e.g. Death of a Salesman, The Dybbuk), Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, international films (e.g. Europa Europa, Fiddler on the Roof), Krakow Jewish Culture Festival, etc. CYRK posters also encompass a wide range of subjects- from faces to forms, as well as styles- from real to surreal, coloring- from psychedelic to pale and messages- from obvious to obscure.
The Polish School of Posters, encouraged and supported by the government under Communism, became a national treasure that set the standards others follow and possessed a genius not seen in one country, at one time since France's 'La Belle Époque' of the 1890s. More than 75 Polish artists were employed by the State to create posters on specified themes: film, jazz, opera & theater in addition to Jewish culture & CYRK.
Original contemporary Polish posters are 27" x 39", linen-backed and affordably priced from $125 to $850. CYRK posters can currently be seen 24/7 at www.contemporaryposters.com. The Poster Fair (IVPF) will be held at the Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18 St, NYC; October 26 -28, Fri.5-9, Sat.10-7, Sun.11-6.
News Release: 08/00
FREE! Solidarity poster @ contemporaryposters.com!
Contemporary Posters is offering a FREE Solidarity (SOLIDARNOSC) poster in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Poland’s Solidarity (1980-2000). The artist’s special edition Solidarity poster will be sent FREE with every order of CYRK original Polish art/circus posters from www.contemporaryposters.com.
The Solidarity (SOLIDARNOSC) poster is the world-famous poster that helped the Polish people win their freedom - the poster that served as the visual rallying symbol for the defeat of Communism. The artist, Tomasz Sarnecki, a 23 year old Polish graphic designer, transformed a publicity still for the film High Noon (1952) into a campaign poster for the crucial 1989 Polish elections which brought Lech Walesa and the Solidarity party to power. Gary Cooper is shown carrying a ballot and wearing the Solidarity logo - SOLIDARNOSC. The message at the bottom is short and to the point: W Samo Poludnie, 4 Czerwca 1989 - It’s High Noon, June 4, 1989.
Sarnecki reprinted in Poland a limited quantity of his Solidarity poster (signed in the plate) to honor the 20th Anniversary of Solidarity in 2000. In 1980, after a rash of nationwide strikes, Solidarity gained recognition as the first legal independent trade union in a Soviet controlled country since 1946.
CYRK posters are the most highly acclaimed and recognized posters of the renowned Polish School of Posters (1945-89). The Polish government under Communism had encouraged and supported poster art, issuing more than 200 different CYRK posters by more than 75 artists. As a result, the Polish School of Posters became extraordinary, possessing a genius not seen in one country since France’s ‘La Belle Époque’ of the 1890s.
More than 100 different CYRK poster designs can be viewed by clicking on www.contemporaryposters.com. Original 1970’s CYRK posters are available for sale from $125 to $375 linen-backed. The Solidarity (SOLIDARNOSC) poster (27 1/2"w x 39 1/2"h) is FREE, while supply lasts, with every CYRK poster order.
Contemporary Posters was formed to introduce & establish graphic design posters as an art form in the U.S. In other countries, they long have been recognized and collected as art. Contemporary graphic design posters - the antique/vintage posters of tomorrow...the art investment for the future!
History of NSZZ SOLIDARNOSC (Solidarity)
1980
7/1 - Government introduces ‘market prices’ for meat products in factory commissaries; workers protest
July-Aug - strikes run throughout country
8/14 - strike at Gdansk Shipyard; general strike follows in throughout region & then country
8/17 - Strike Committee at Gdansk Shipyard, led by Lech Walesa, an electrician, announces workers’ 21 goals (inc. freedom of speech, right to strike & to establish free trade unions)
9/17 - representatives of 30+ regional committees establish the Independent and Self-governing Trade Union (NSZZ) SOLIDARNOSC (Solidarity)
11/10 - Supreme Court acknowledges Solidarity Constitution
1981
Sept - Lech Walesa elected President of NSZZ Union
12/13 - martial law introduced in Poland followed by strikes throughout the country
1982
12/31 - martial law suspended
1983
10/5 - Lech Walesa awarded Nobel Peach Prize
1988
April-Aug - another wave of strikes commence; Round Table negotiations proposed
Dec - establishment of Citizens’ Committee led by Lech Walesa
1989
4/5 - Round Table agreement provides for re-legalization of Solidarity & free elections to the Sejm (Lower House of Parliament) where 35% of seats are to be contested freely
June 4 - elections to Sejm & Senate. Citizens’ Committee (of Solidarity) gains 161 (out of 161) seats in the Sejm & 99 (out of 100) seats in the Senate
1990
April - 2nd National Congress of Delegates of NSZZ Solidarity reelects Lech Walesa president.
12/9 - in second round of elections, Lech Walesa becomes President of Poland
1991
April - Red Army begins to leave Poland
10/27 -1st fully free parliamentary elections in Poland since WW II
1995
11/14 - 2nd presidential election, Aleksander Kwaniewski defeats Lech Walesa (51%-49%)
1996
June - Solidarity decides to participate in the parliamentary elections within the framework of the coalition of the Electoral Action of Solidarity (AWS) based on Solidarity’s program
News Release: 08/00
Record Auction prices for CYRK...Polish posters
At the Swann Galleries Inc., NYC, poster auction, August 2, 2000; two rare 1970's CYRK...Polish art/circus posters fetched record high prices. After some lively bidding, Elvis hound dog (1970) by Jerzy Treutler and Gal roller skating (c.1972) by Anna Kozniewska, were gaveled down at $600 and $550 respectively.
CYRK posters are the most highly-acclaimed and recognized posters of the world-famous Polish School of Posters (post World War II-the fall of Communism). The Polish School of Posters changed the face of contemporary poster design forever and set the standards others follow. It possessed a genius not seen in one country since France's 'La Belle Époque' of the 1890s.
The prices realized at the Swann auction confirmed the continuing popularity and up trend in the poster market, especially in contemporary posters. Contemporary posters are usually defined as posters created since 1950 and have long been recognized and collected as art in Europe and Asia. CYRK posters, though now showing percentage price increases of approximately 2000% over the last 20 years, are still a very affordable and aesthetically pleasurable way to invest in the art market.
Contemporary Posters of NYC has a large collection of CYRK posters by more than 35 different artists available for sale and can be viewed on www.contemporaryposters.com. All posters are original, linen-backed, 27"w x 39"h and priced mainly from $125 to $375. Contemporary Posters will be exhibiting at the International Vintage Poster Fair, Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th St, NYC, October 20th to 22nd.
The Swann Galleries' auction also witnessed increased interest and strong prices in other contemporary posters as well as vintage posters by such well-recognized artists as Bonnard, Toulouse-Lautrec and Mucha.
News Release: 08/00
CYRK... Posters at Swann Galleries’ Summer Auction
A quartet of museum-quality, rare 1970s CYRK posters will be on auction for the first time at the Swann Galleries Inc. sale in New York City on August 2nd, 2000.
Clown face with derby - the only CYRK poster to be made into a postage stamp - will be the featured CYRK poster. CYRK...original Polish art/circus posters are the most highly-acclaimed and recognized posters of the world-famous Polish School of Posters. The Polish School of Posters changed the face of contemporary poster design forever and set the standards others follow. It possessed a genius not seen in one country since France’s ‘La Belle Époque’ of the 1890s.
The Republic of Poland issued the Clown face with derby stamp (a 2500 zloty stamp) in 1992 as a tribute to the popularity of both the poster and the artist as well as CYRK (the Polish circus). The Clown face with derby poster by Waldemar Swierzy is one of more than 200 different CYRK posters by more than 75 artists commissioned by the Polish government during the golden era of the Polish School of Posters (post-WWII [1945] until the fall of Communism [1989]). The artist, Waldemar Swierzy (b.1931), is one of Poland’s most prominent posterists. His varied style is innovative often employing unusual concepts - of which Clown face with derby (1970) is a prime example.
The other CYRK posters to be auctioned are: Elvis hound dog (1970) a paean to American culture by Jerzy Treutler, a significant 1960-70’s CYRK artist; 3 bikers (1974) a colorful psychedelic image by Jan Sawka, currently a foremost Polish-American theater set designer and Gal roller skating (c.1972) a joyful exuberant poster by Anna Kozniewska, one of the few women CYRK artists.
The mid-summer poster sale at the Swann Galleries, 105 E. 25th St., New York City, will also include vintage posters by such well-recognized artists as Bonnard, Toulouse-Lautrec and Mucha as well as other rare images.
| Click poster for details & artist's bio/artist's other posters! |
                                               
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| Other CYRK artists: A-D, F-K, L-R, S-Z, Anonymous |
