"Kultura-makulatura / Glitter to Litter. Cyprian Kościelniak" coming soon!
Kultura-makulatura / Glitter to Litter. Cyprian Kościelniak: illustrations, posters, drawings
17 November 2017–17 March 2018
Format B1 Gallery
Curator of the exhibition: Jacek Szelegejd
13 April–17 June 2018
The Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań’s Pedagogy and Fine Arts Faculty in Kalisz
ul. Nowy Świat 28/30
62-800 Kalisz
"Kultura-makulatura / Glitter to Litter. Cyprian Kościelniak: illustrations, posters, drawings" is the first comprehensive presentation in Poland to show the work of the outstanding Polish graphic designer, illustrator and painter, working in Holland since the 1980s.
Cyprian Kościelniak was renowned in the 80s not only for his modern and expressive poster designs but also for designing the credits for such films as Piotr Szulkin's Wojna światów – następne stulecie (The War of the Worlds: Next Century) and Polish Television’s serial Jan Serce. Having lost hope for the future of Polish posters and after unsatisfactory attempts to collaborate with the Polish film industry, the artist left Poland for Holland in order to test himself in what was for him an entirely new field – press illustration. Working for almost 30 years with the most important Dutch and German newspapers (NRC Handelsblad, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) and (briefly) with the New York Times, he initiated a type of visual commentary on current political and cultural events (with the launching of metaphorical thinking to which the viewers/audience contribute). This way of creating images harks back to the school of poster as instilled by Henryk Tomaszewski – one of the founders of the "Polish school of poster" (Kościelniak was the professor’s pupil and later for some time his assistant at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts).
In his new country the artist became an original and highly regarded press il-lustrator, sometimes compared to the famous American cartoonist Saul Steinberg, and earned himself a permanent place in the columns of many leading newspapers. He also took on other graphic design tasks, which culminated in the design of a monumental decoration project for the Amsterdam Children's Hospital in 2015. At this same time he was teaching at the Minerva Academy in Groningen. In the most recent period (from 2009 to the present day) the artist has also revealed a new face – that of a designer immersed in a mission to create a new language of visual communication. In order to achieve that goal, he has turned to large format paintings on paper, using the narrative properties of press illustration.
At the exhibition we will for the first time be presenting Polish audiences over 250 works from the years 1974-2017, belonging to all the aforementioned fields and specializations, to which the artist has brought his ideas. The collected works will show viewers the wide variety of artistic techniques the artist has used.
The catalogue accompanying the exhibition contains texts concerning the artist by among others Professors Krzysztof Lenk, Marek Freudenreich and Piotr Łuszczykiewicz. Also sharing their thoughts on Kościelniak's work are his Dutch friends and colleagues, the well-known journalists Paul van der Berg and Joost van der Vaart. Publication of the exhibition’s catalogue has been subsidized by the City of Kalisz under its sponsorship of culture and by funds from the Jan Tarasin Art Gallery in Kalisz.
The exhibition, prepared in cooperation with the artist and based on his private ar-chives, will be on view at the Poster Museum in Wilanów until the end of March 2018, following which it will travel to Kalisz - the artist’s hometown.
Press contact: Michał Warda
Tel: 605 405 763
(22) 842 26 06, ext. 102
Media patronage:
