Cieślewicz - poster for Bartok opera, 1965. Pictured right: movie poster 1955

A major retrospective exhibition of the work of the Polish artist Roman Cieślewicz (1930-1996) has opened at the Royal College of Art in London.

On display are over 150 works – films posters designed in Poland in the 1950s and 60s, collage illustrations to books by 20th-century writers (including Bruno Schultz’s Street of Crocodiles and The Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass), magazine covers and publicity material for the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

Cieślewicz is regarded as one of the most influential graphic designers of the 20th century. Working first in Warsaw and then in Paris, he was a household name in the artistic life of both Poland and France. The exhibition catalogue writes that “he brought surrealist fantasy to the staid visual culture of communist Poland and, when he arrived in Paris in 1963, a critical perspective on consumer spectacle in the West.”

Cieślewicz had over one hundred one-man shows in galleries all over the world. In addition to major Polish collections, his works can be found in such prestigious institutions as the Pompidou Centre, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Library of Congress in Washington.

The exhibition in London is open until 7 August. (mk)

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