“Wow. Fangor really churned out the propaganda in his younger days,” said UD to Mr UD this morning over breakfast. “There’s a big exhibit in Warsaw of tons of his commie posters.” She showed Mr UD this one by their old friend, of the yearning big-eyed woman with the fraternal nations of the world around her neck.
“1955 World Festival of Youth and Students,” he mused. “You know, I think I learned to read during that festival. They gave out posters with national flags on the front; and on the back, for each country, little descriptive paragraphs. I think that was the first thing I read.”
November 24th, 2011 at 11:11AM
Sorry I won’t be in Warsaw between now and December 9 to check out this exhibit. As a Polish-American kid growing up in the US in the late 50s and early 60s, I was struck even as a child by the graphic identity that Fangor and his fellow artists created for Poland. Every month we got our copy of Poland magazine with its distinctive cover art, and the Polish movie posters for American films were totally unlike anything seen in the U.S. We never saw the propaganda posters from the early 1950s, which were for internal Polish consumption.
November 25th, 2011 at 8:02AM
Polish Peter: Yes – along with the propaganda, Fangor was creating all sorts of intriguing new poster art…