Date: 1966
Size: 22.75 x 32.5 inches
Artist: Bronislaw Zelek
About the Artist: Bronislaw Zelek, born 1935, was a graphic designer, poster artist and author of acclaimed typefaces. Died on February 28th 2018. Zelek was born in 1935. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw under Henryk Tomaszewski in 1961. In 1967, he received Tadeusz Trepkowski‘s prestigious WAG Award and from the 1970s he worked as his former tutor Hernyk Tomaszewski’s assistant at the Academy of Fine Arts. Since 1971 up until his death in 2018, he lived and worked in Vienna.
Original and captivating film posters were Bronisław Zelek’s trademark. His very characteristic way of implementing stills and ascetic colours and his perfect blending of images and typography have made him widely recognised as the no. 1 specialist of portraying horror films in posters. Nevertheless, he was equally comfortable in other fields, preparing much brighter projects for the Polish Jazz Association as well as a splendid poster for the 8th International Chopin Piano Competition. (culture.pl)
About the Poster: Beginning in the 1950s and through the 1980s, the Polish School of Posters combined the aesthetics of painting with the succinctness and simple metaphor of the poster. It developed characteristics such as painterly gesture, linear quality, and vibrant colors, as well as a sense of individual personality, humor, and fantasy. It was in this way that the polish poster was able to make the distinction between designer and artist less apparent.
Polish posters have come to stand apart from the advertising design conventions fostered in Europe during the 20th century. It was during the communist regime, a time when culture was closely monitored by the state, that Polish artists found liberation in poster art. Ironically, this foremost public art form became ground for individual expression. During that period, the cultural institutions, of theatre and cinema especially, flourished as they were funded by government agencies. Artists freshly out of the fine arts academy flocked towards poster production as the demand for this art was rapidly growing. The result became some of the most unique and expressive posters the world has ever seen - and artworks in themselves.
About the Film: Hunger is a 1966 black-and-white drama film directed by Denmark's Henning Carlsen, starring Swedish actor Per Oscarsson, and based upon the novel Hunger by Norwegian Nobel Prize-winning author Knut Hamsun. Filmed on location in Oslo, it was the first film produced as a cooperative effort among the three Scandinavian countries.
With its stark focus on a life of poverty and desperation, the film is considered a masterpiece of social realism. Film historians suggest it was the first Danish film to gain serious international attention since the work of Carl Theodor Dreyer. It is one of the ten films listed in Denmark's cultural canon by the Danish Ministry of Culture. (Wikipedia)
Ready to frame!