Waldemar Świerzy, FROM THE "GANGSTERS" SERIES, 1998

30.00 x 38.00 cm - gouache on cardboard
signed lower left: SWIERZY
on the reverse, in oil: KUC


Waldemar Świerzy (Katowice, September 9, 1931 – Warsaw, November 27, 2013) – graduated in 1952 from the Department of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków – Katowice branch. From 1952, he worked as a poster designer for, among others, the Film Rental Center, Art and Graphic Publishing House, and numerous theaters throughout the country. Since 1975, he has collaborated with PIW, designing book covers and illustrations. Starting in 1965, he taught at the State Higher School of Fine Arts (renamed the Academy of Fine Arts in 1996) in Poznań, where he rose through the academic ranks until he became a professor in 1987. From 1994 to 2001, he was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He also taught as a visiting professor at universities abroad: in Havana (1970), Mexico City (1979–1980), West Berlin (1985–1986), and Kassel (1989–1990). He has been a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) since 1966. He is among the co-founders of the “Polish School of Posters” phenomenon, having displayed from the outset an individual style based on painterly techniques, full of dynamism and color. In the late 1960s, he introduced motifs into his work based on the “psychedelic” style of hippie art and the circles associated with it. In the mid-1970s, he began creating a series of “portrait” posters, depicting on a grand scale the image of the artist (visual artist, musician, film star) to whom the poster was dedicated. In this way, he created a gallery of leading figures in Polish cultural life over the past three decades. His posters have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions. He has won numerous awards, including the Tadeusz Trepkowski WAG Award (1956), the Prix Toulouse-Lautrec in Versailles (1959, 1962), a gold medal at the São Paulo Art Biennial (1969), First Prize from *The Hollywood Reporter* (1975, 1985), a silver (1972) and a gold (1976) medal at the International Poster Biennial in Warsaw, a gold medal at the International Poster Biennial in Lahti (1977), and numerous awards at the Polish Poster Biennial in Katowice (1965, 1971, 1975, 1977, 1987, 1989).