KOMUNIKAT LDZ. Graphic design within Academy of Fine Arts circles in Lodz
KOMUNIKAT LDZ. Graphic design within Academy of Fine Arts circles in Lodz
8 September - 29 October 2017
Format B1 Gallery | Poster Museum at Wilanów
Curators: Mariusz Knorowski, Michał Warda, Piotr Karczewski, Sławomir Kosmynka
The exhibition’s graphic identity: Jakub "Hakobo" Stępień
An exhibition organized to celebrate 100 years of Avant-garde in Poland, presenting the educational achievements and avant-garde trends of the Graphic Design Department of Lodz’s State Art School and Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts.
The exhibition, organized in cooperation with the Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, presents the achievements of this distinguished academy’s educators and graduates in the field of poster and graphic design. Its title refers to the name of the font designed by Artur Frankowski. It is based on the design of the alphabet as sketched in 1932 by Władysław Strzemiński, the patron of the Academy. Its modern form serves as a symbol of avant-garde trends in the history of Polish graphic design. Strzemiński's pedagogical achievements and creative personality have influenced the curriculum and character of this academy, where both a modern approach to the art of design and the very notion of the avant-garde are a constant presence in the creative exploration and didactic activities connected with this school of design. One can safely say that to a large extent these factors determine the specific nature of the academy’s curriculum and identity.
The dominance of avant-garde tendencies, especially in the field of design and new media, is a phenomenon characteristic of the Lodz academy of the 1960s and 1970s. The 1980s and 1990s saw the increased influence of postmodernism and eclecticism and a return to classicism and conservatism. After 2000, the Lodz design environment, centred around the Academy of Fine Arts, was distinguished by a conscious pursuit of modern solutions grounded in the identity established in the interwar avant-garde tradition. This is also probably one of the most important places in the country where graphic design is based on elementary principles with regard to composition, a modular grid and modern typographic experimentation.
The exhibition will present a selection of the best poster and graphic design projects by the most important graphic designers from both the Lodz Academy’s history and its present operations – both its educators and their pupils, who to this day pursue the ideas of their masters. Along with examples by representatives of the younger and middle generations such as Jakub Stępień, Piotr Karczewski, Krzysztof Iwański, Agnieszka Ziemiszewska and Karolina Grudzińska, there will be works by the most esteemed Polish designers: Bogusław Balicki and Stanisław Łabęcki, Krzysztof Lenk, Jan Kubasiewicz, Tadeusz Piechura, Jerzy Treliński, Mariusz Łukawski, Sławomir Iwański and Sławomir Kosmynka
In addition to more than 200 posters by 37 designers from the collection belonging to the Poster Museum in Wilanów and the archives of the artists themselves, we will be presenting works of applied graphics in the form of multimedia presentations displayed on the gallery’s walls and monitors.
The exhibition is accompanied by the following films:
Motorem słów (By word of mouth), 2016
Idea and development: Janusz Zagrodzki
Script, editing and music: Tomasz Samusionek
Duration: 00:12:20
TYPOŁódź. Plakat w żagle (Posters with sails aloft), 2013
Production: Tomasz Samosionek
Exhibition Curator: Sławomir Iwański
Duration: 00:38:42
KOMUNIKAT LDZ is the first comprehensive presentation in the history of the Poster Museum in Wilanów to show this Polish arts school’s achievements in the field of graphic design and poster. Produced in close cooperation with teachers and graduates of the Lodz Academy of Fine Arts, it will constitute the most comprehensive presentation of Polish graphic design to be shown during the 2017 Year of the Avant-garde.