L.A. - Wide Polish Poster Festival

FROM THE COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY POSTERS FEBRUARY 17 – MAY 27, 2007 THE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER IN SAN FRANCISCO and CONTEMPORARY POSTERS

present

@Leonard Konopelski 2007
Posters evolved into a highly sophisticated, expressive, and powerful visual art form under the conditions of Communist Poland, and along with avant-garde theater in the same period became one of Poland’s most widely admired cultural achievements. In a centralized economy that could subsidize the arts – profits were not key and thus advertising was not geared to selling tickets, and since posters were the main medium through which films, plays, and cultural events were publicized, they became a field of employment for artists and graphic designers in which these could exercise a crafty combination of personal creativity and a visual wit too subtle to be of concern to, or even come to the notice of, the censors.

With state financial support and artistic encouragement, the graphic artists of the golden era of the Polish School of Posters (1950s-1980s) designed strong, original, individualistic images – often intended to surprise or disturb the viewers\' assumptions, frequently using commonly understood ironies to communicate surreptitiously and critically about society or even “the system” itself. The best of the posters – created by an extraordinarily large number of brilliantly talented and highly trained artists, among them
such world-renowned masters of the art of the poster as Jan Lenica, Henryk Tomaszewski, and Waldemar Swierzy – are visual gems having the compact concision of literature’s pithiest epigrams. It is said that the “Polish School” of poster art demonstrated a genius not seen in one country since France\'s La Belle Époque of the 1890s.

Along with its posters on everything from the circus to legendary stars of American jazz, the Polish Poster Festival, in the longest-running of its several venues, puts the spotlight on Polish-Jewish cultural events that were sponsored by the government after 1000 years of vibrant Jewish culture had been effectively destroyed in the Holocaust. These included productions of the E.R. Kaminski National Jewish Theater, and many films, operas, and exhibitions on Jewish themes or by Jewish artists.

CYRK POSTERS
FEBRUARY 17 – MARCH 10, 2007
Opening reception: Sat., Feb. 17, 6-9 PM
Track 16 Gallery
Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Ave, Bldg C1, Santa Monica, CA 90404
tel. (310) 264-4678

JAZZ POSTERS
FEBRUARY 24 – APRIL 27, 2007
Reception: Sat., Mar. 10, 4-7 PM
The Jazz Bakery
3233 Helms Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90034
tel. (310) 271-9039

JEWISH CULTURE POSTERS
FEBRUARY 25 – MAY 27, 2007
Reception: Sun., Mar. 11
University of Judaism
15600 Mulholland Drive, Bel Air, CA 90077
tel. (310) 476-9777

FILM, THEATER, OPERA POSTERS
MARCH 15 – MAY 26, 2007
Weidman Gallery
811 N. La Cienga Blvd., W. Hollywood, CA 90069
Tel. (310) 657-5286

FILM POSTERS
APRIL 21 – MAY 3, 2007
Polish Film Festival LA
& Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival
Laemmle’s Sunset 5 Theatre
8000 Sunset Blvd., W. Hollywood, CA 90046
tel. (323) 848-3500

EXHIBITION POSTERS
APRIL 26 – MAY 17, 2007
Voila! Gallery
332 1/2 N. La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036
tel. (323) 954-0418

OTHER SELECTED POSTERS:

Warszawa Restaurant
1414 Lincoln Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401
tel. (310) 393-8831

Bar Lubitsch
7720 Santa Monica Blvd., W. Hollywood, CA 90048
tel. (323) 654-1234