Poster Art Behind the Iron Curtain

October 30, 2014

Poland in the mid-1950s was a country firmly in the grip of the USSR. Under Stalin’s rule, art was seen only as a form of propaganda and, even after his death in 1953, poster art remained the only allowed form of artistic expression.

With no other choice, the country’s classically trained painters devoted themselves to this humble medium and threw themselves into the art of poster design. More specifically, they focused on the new art of movie poster design.

It was here, in the state-controlled film industry, that the artists found their greatest freedom. Unlike the studio-driven, commercial movie posters of the West, these artists had complete license to interpret the films however they saw fit, often without ever having seen the movie in question. Finding inspiration from pop-art, and incorporating detailed symbolism, these highly trained artists were able to create striking works of art from behind the iron curtain of Communism.

So began the so-called Golden Age of movie poster design.

Today these unexpectedly beautiful, surreal and often provocative works of art, have become prized collector’s items and a source of inspiration for the country’s emerging artists.

Below, are three of the striking movie posters that we discovered in Krakow; Tears Won’t Help, Woman Times Seven and Fig Leaf.