The Polish poster. The collection

Muzeum Plakatu w Wilanowie is back! From Young Poland posters to contemporary graphic designs – the collection of the Polish poster comprises nearly 36,000 objects. For the first time some of them will be presented as a permanent exhibition in the world’s first poster museum.

The story of the poster is a history of social, cultural and political change recorded in art. You are invited to events accompanying the exhibition that will allow a closer look at the different stages of this history and reveal how the language of the poster has changed – from the earliest Young Poland designs to the newest graphic works. The exhibition is accompanied by a rich programme of events. We have planned guided tours, lectures, meetings with graphic designers and creative workshops for young people, adults and children. Events for seniors and a programme of sessions for school groups and teaching staff have also been prepared. On one Saturday in June we will run creative activities connected with the art of the poster. Educational prints await visitors at the entrance to the display. The exhibition is also accompanied by an audioguide in Polish and English.

ADULTS AND YOUNG PEOPLE

CURATORIAL TOURS

15 March, 19 April, 10 May, 20 June / Sunday or Saturday / 11.00 and 13.00

You are invited to tour the exhibition with its curators: Izabela Iwanicka-Dzierżawska, Aleksandra Oleksiak, Bożena Pysiewicz and Michał Warda.

Izabela Iwanicka-Dzierżawska – art historian and museum professional, a graduate of the Faculty of Historical Sciences of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. She works at the Poster Museum in Wilanów and specialises in the history of the Polish poster.

Aleksandra Oleksiak – a graduate in art history and philosophy of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, curator of the Foreign Poster Collection and curator of numerous exhibitions devoted to the art of the poster.

Bożena Pysiewicz – art historian and curator; in 2022–2025 she served as curator of the Poster Museum in Wilanów. Educator and trainer, author of museum projects and publications in the history of the poster, education and museology.

Michał Warda – art historian and museum professional, a graduate of the Faculty of Humanities of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, curator of the Polish Poster Collection at the Poster Museum in Wilanów.

meeting point in the hall of the Poster Museum in Wilanów / tickets priced at PLN 22 and 16 available online only from Tuesday – two weeks before the event / limited places / c. 80 min

SUNDAY TOURS

22, 29 March; 12, 26 April; 17, 24, 31 May; 7, 21, 28 June; / Sunday / 11.00 and 13.00

Every Sunday you are invited on a tour with guides from the Education Department.

meeting point in the hall of the Poster Museum in Wilanów / tickets priced at PLN 22 and 16 available online only from Tuesday – two weeks before the event / limited places / c. 80 min

GUIDED TOURS IN ENGLISH / Guided tour in English

May 30th / Saturday / 1 PM

Join a tour with a guide from the Education Department. Let’s visit the exhibition together to discover its main topics and the most intriguing artworks.

meeting point at the entrance hall / tickets 22 PLN and 16 PLN available online from Tuesday – two weeks before the event / approx. 80 min

GUIDED TOURS IN UKRAINIAN / Guided tour in Ukrainian

18 квітня / субота / 13.00

18 April / Saturday / 13.00

Запрошуємо на екскурсію виставкою «Польський плакат. Колекція», яка відбудеться українською мовою. Разом оглянемо ключові періоди і твори на виставці й обговоримо найважливіші теми.

Зустріч у вхідній залі Музею Плакату в Віланові / кількість місць обмежена / тривалість 80 хв. / квитки по 22 зл. (16 зл. пільговий)

MULTISENSORY TOURS FOR SENIORS

8 July / Wednesday / 13.00 and 15.00

The poster – the art of the street

We encounter posters in the urban space. They inform about events, invite and advertise. Some of them, however, are far more than an ordinary bill. Colour, lettering and an inventive combination of image and text make us pause for a moment in the rush of everyday life. The poster then becomes a story – full of symbols, associations and emotions. During the workshop we will look at selected posters from the museum’s collection, discovering what distinguishes the artistic poster and what means its makers employ. The meeting is multisensory – besides looking, there will also be an opportunity to get to know forms, textures and compositions, including through touch.

meeting point in the hall of the Poster Museum in Wilanów / free admission / limited places / c. 80 min

MEETINGS AT THE EXHIBITION

18 April, 9 May, 4 July / Saturday / 16.00

meeting point in the hall of the Poster Museum in Wilanów / tickets priced at PLN 22 and 16 available online from Tuesday – two weeks before the event / limited places / c. 80 min

18 April / Design as a form of activism: can a print on an A4 sheet change the world? / Aleksandra Jasionowska

That is: how small, grassroots initiatives join together into great, global undertakings; what is the role of those who design, and of those who print these works on home printers and hang them in the windows of flats. Are small gestures of solidarity visible in the landscape of high-budget outdoor campaigns? Does imperfect human work prevail over a technocratic and soulless system? And if not, is it still worth trying to win against it?

Aleksandra Jasionowska – graphic designer and illustrator; since 2022 at the Green Spaces Authority of the Capital City of Warsaw, and previously, from 2016, at the City Marketing Office, where she was responsible for the look of most image and information campaigns. She works to make Warsaw a little more beautiful, especially where design and nature meet. Since 2022 a member of the board of KTR at the SAR Marketing Communication Association. She works with cultural institutions and commercial clients in Poland and abroad. Author of the visual identity of the All-Poland Women’s Strike.

9 May, 14.00 / “POSTING ORDER” / Ryszard Kajzer / please note the change of meeting time / other sessions as planned at 16.00

The meeting will illuminate the present role of the poster as a medium – its informational, artistic and social function. We will consider whether the poster still serves as a carrier of a message in the public space, or whether it is evolving towards an autonomous form of visual statement, present also in the digital environment. Questions essential to the creative process will be raised: where to find a concept? How to build an idea that is at once legible and intriguing? What is the place of the poster in contemporary visual culture, and how can designers consciously shape its meaning?

dr hab. Ryszard Kajzer – graphic artist, author of posters, illustrations, book designs and graphic marks. A graduate and lecturer of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, winner of many graphic competitions in Poland and abroad. He has led poster-design workshops at academies in Budapest, Bucharest, Helsinki, Oradea, Pilsen, San Luis Potosí, Stuttgart and Mexico City. His works are held, among others, in the collections of museums and galleries in Berlin, Budapest, Essen, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Lahti, Mexico, Mons, Paris, Beijing, Poznań, Toyama, Trnava and Warsaw. Founder of Zerkaj Studio.

4 July / Posters from the city of Łódź / Sławomir Iwański and Kuki Krzysztof Iwański

Thinking about the poster in Łódź is founded on the experience of the State Higher School of Visual Arts and the constructivist ideas of Władysław Strzemiński. The poster is not an illustration but an autonomous visual language based on structure, typography and the relations of forms. An important stage of development was the work of the duo Balicki & Łabęcki. Today this current is continued through typographic-constructivist experiments in which designers explore the limits of legibility, form and the function of the poster. The influence of the Łódź poster is visible both in Poland and abroad, and its principles are developed by successive generations of artists.

prof. dr hab. Sławomir Iwański – graphic artist and teacher, a graduate of the State Higher School of Visual Arts in Łódź (now the Academy of Fine Arts), Faculty of Graphic Arts. From 1978 to 2017 he was associated with his alma mater, where from 1991 to 2017 he led the Studio of Spatial Graphic Design and Poster. In 1997 he received the title of professor of fine arts. From the same year he has been associated with the Leon Schiller National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź, where he leads the Studio of Film Image Art. He works in graphic design (poster, mark, book typography) and in printmaking. Author of numerous solo exhibitions and participant in many national and international exhibitions, repeatedly awarded for his work.

Kuki Krzysztof Iwański – visual artist and graphic designer whose work combines a distinctive aesthetic with a critical reflection on contemporary image culture. He is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) – an organisation bringing together leading figures in design and the visual arts. He creates posters, animations, multimedia and spatial installations. He is currently actively involved in promoting Polish art abroad, collaborating with institutions and cultural partners in Europe and Asia.

SUNDAY LECTURES

22, 29 March; 19, 26 April; 17, 31 May; 21 June / Sunday / 15.00

After 1989 the tradition of the Polish Poster School was an important point of reference for artists in Poland. In the face of the advancing dominance of advertising graphics in the early 1990s it was at first held up as an unsurpassed model of an authorial design method and of the artistic qualities of applied graphic art. For a younger generation of graphic designers, however, faced with a publishing market changing irreversibly, the “Polish school” could also be a particular burden. Together we will try to answer the question: where is the Polish poster, and what does it mean for us?

meeting point in the hall of the Poster Museum in Wilanów / free admission / limited places / c. 75 min

22 March / Not only the poster / just not the poster… Polish graphic design and visual culture after 1989 / Michał Warda

After 1989 the tradition of the Polish Poster School was an important point of reference for artists in Poland. In the face of the advancing dominance of advertising graphics in the early 1990s it was at first held up as an unsurpassed model of an authorial design method and of the artistic qualities of applied graphic art. For a younger generation of graphic designers, however, faced with a publishing market changing irreversibly, the “Polish school” could also be a particular burden. Together we will try to answer the question: where is the Polish poster, and what does it mean for us?

Michał Warda – art historian and museum professional, a graduate of the Faculty of Humanities of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, curator of the Polish Poster Collection at the Poster Museum in Wilanów.

29 March / The exhibition as an encounter / Katarzyna Matul

When the Poster Museum in Wilanów opened in 1968, the poster – a medium of everyday life – was recognised as a fully fledged work of art. The exhibitions were not, however, intended merely to confer prestige; they answered a fundamental question: how to show applied art without stripping it of the character of “living art”? Designs co-created among others by Stanisław Zamecznik challenged the “salon” model of display, building a relationship with the viewer and inviting co-participation. Today, in an age of an excess of images, that tension returns: is a poster exhibition still a space of encounter in which the viewer can feel a co-author?

dr Katarzyna Matul – art historian, a graduate of the University of Warsaw, former curator of the International Poster Biennale in Warsaw, a fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation; in 2018 she defended her doctorate at the University of Lausanne. She researches art and graphic design after 1945 from the perspective of art history, social and cultural history, and the sociology of art.

19 April / An aesthetic of scarcity, a language of freedom: the Polish poster in the world / Mateusz M. Bieczyński

How did the Polish Poster brand come into being? How did it come about that posters designed for local cinemas and theatres began to function as works of art at international exhibitions and in collections around the world? The lecture will be a story of a paradox: of how scarcity became a source of creativity, constraints a source of creative strength, and an aesthetic of abbreviation, metaphor and irony proved a language legible far beyond Poland’s borders. We will look at the path the Polish poster travelled from artists’ studios to galleries in Paris, New York or Tokyo.

prof. dr hab. Mateusz M. Bieczyński – professor at the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts in Poznań, holder of a habilitation in law and a doctorate in art history, a court expert at the Regional Court in Poznań in the valuation of works of art and copyright. Author of the monographs Waldemar Świerzy. Malarz plakatów (2024), Wiktor Górka. Maestro Montanita (2024), Grzegorz Marszałek. Uwielbiam przypadek i go wykorzystuję (2023), The Polish Poster School in a broader historical and cultural perspective (2024). He has curated many exhibitions and art festivals.

26 April / Lithographic masterpieces – the Polish poster before 1918 / Aleksandra Oleksiak

The birth of the artistic poster forever changed the face of our streets. The foremost Young Poland artists turned to the new graphic medium: Teodor Axentowicz, Piotr Stachiewicz, Anna Gramatyka-Ostrowska, Kazimierz Sichulski, though they were not sure whether “the lithographic pencil can fully replace the painter’s brush in its artistic mission”. In the years of the partitions, when Poland was absent from the map of the world, the poster sustained the national identity of Poles in the three partitions. Today, thanks to these graphic testimonies, we can bring together diverse fragments of a distant reality and more fully feel the atmosphere of a bygone age.

Aleksandra Oleksiak – a graduate in art history and philosophy of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, curator of the Foreign Poster Collection and curator of many exhibitions devoted to the art of the poster.

17 May / Can a poster be a work of art? The phenomenon of the Polish film poster / Bożena Pysiewicz

“It is hard to believe, but in Poland film posters are sometimes true works of art.” So noted in 1955 a young Icelander, Kjartan Gudjonsson, who had come to Warsaw for the Youth Festival and was surprised to discover something extraordinary – in the streets of the city, film advertisements looked like the work of artists. His astonishment well captures the phenomenon of the Polish film poster. The lecture will be devoted to the history and character of this distinctive field of graphic art, illustrated by works from the collections of the Poster Museum in Wilanów. It is also a story of how film advertising in post-war Poland transformed itself into an autonomous art form, creating one of the most recognisable phenomena of visual culture.

Bożena Pysiewicz – art historian and curator; in 2022–2025 she served as curator of the Poster Museum in Wilanów, a branch of the National Museum in Warsaw. Educator and trainer, author of museum projects and publications in the history of the poster, education and museology.

31 May / Safety, hygiene, modernity. How the poster taught people to wash their hands, and why sugar fortifies / Agata Szydłowska

With the arrival of modernity, print spread – and so did hygiene. The poster was quickly harnessed to mass campaigns for a healthy way of life, addressed above all to women – washing, cleaning and disinfection were their domain. Men, in turn, were warned against the ruinous effects of alcohol abuse and against threats to health and life at work. These posters reinforced beliefs about gender roles and shaped the modern citizen. During the lecture we will look at twentieth-century posters on health, hygiene and safety and discuss them in a broad social and political context.

dr Agata Szydłowska – researcher, author of books, curator. A graduate in art history at the University of Warsaw and of the School of Social Sciences at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She works in the Chair of Design Theory at the Faculty of Design of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where she teaches, among other subjects, the history of design. She is interested in interdisciplinary research on design, in particular the entanglements of design with politics and social life.

5 July / please note the change of date / Transformations and traditions. The Polish poster in the years 1965–1989 / Izabela Iwanicka-Dzierżawska / lecture moved from 21 June to 5 July

In the mid-1960s a significant change took place in the Polish poster. For almost three subsequent decades new tendencies came to the fore, and earlier currents underwent transformation. Some artistic phenomena coexisted, interpenetrated, grew from different traditions or art academies, and also died away in the form originally known. This is a time of many-stranded change in the art of the poster in Poland.

Izabela Iwanicka-Dzierżawska – art historian and museum professional, a graduate of the Faculty of Historical Sciences of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. She works at the Poster Museum in Wilanów and specialises in the history of the Polish poster.

CHILDREN, FAMILIES

FAMILY WORKSHOPS

18 April, 9 May / Saturday / 11.00

18 April

How is a poster made?

Where does an idea for a poster come from? Does the image appear first, or perhaps the words? Why are some posters very simple and others full of detail? During the workshop we will talk about the path from the first idea to a finished design. At the end we will design our own posters, using colour, composition and a short slogan.

9 May

What does a poster say?

Why are some letters large and shouting, and others small and calm? How can colours encourage us to see a film or go to the theatre? Do the image and the inscription always say the same thing? A poster can catch the eye from a distance. How is that possible? During the workshop we will get to know selected posters from the collection of the Poster Museum in Wilanów and discover how artists combined images, colours and letters to convey a message to us.

event for children aged 5–12 / meeting point in the hall of the Poster Museum in Wilanów / tickets for a child PLN 25 (each subsequent child PLN 10), tickets for a companion PLN 25; available at the ticket desk and online from Tuesday – two weeks before the event / limited places / c. 80 min

20 June

I announce!

How can a great idea be fitted into a very small poster? During the workshop children will create their own typographic poster – a mini-bill that keeps the proportions of a classic poster, but on an exceptionally small scale of 70 × 100 mm. This is a workshop for young makers who want to discover how design, word and image can tell a story together, even in a smaller format.

typographic workshop for children aged 7–12 / meeting point in the hall of the Poster Museum in Wilanów / tickets for a child PLN 25 (each subsequent child PLN 10), tickets for a companion PLN 25; available online only from Tuesday – two weeks before the event / limited places / c. 80 min

SCHOOLS AND TEACHING STAFF

WORKSHOPS FOR TEACHERS

21 March / Saturday / 11.00

Between art and message. The history and meaning of the poster / Magdalena Kucza-Kuczyńska

What did cultural life look like in former times? An answer to that question can be found on posters – colourful testimonies of their age. The exhibition at the Poster Museum in Wilanów shows how applied graphic art documents changing tastes, events and social moods. The workshop will be an opportunity to look at the poster as a valuable source of knowledge about culture and history. We will look at designs from the Young Poland period, the interwar years, Socialist Realist propaganda and works by artists of the Polish Poster School. The second part of the workshop will be devoted to a short presentation on the birth of the poster as an art form and on its visual language.

Magdalena Kucza-Kuczyńska – art historian, NMW educator, lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and at the Higher School of the Arts, author of texts in art history and art therapy.

23 May / Saturday / 14.00

“I feel that…” / poster workshop for adults

Creative meetings in which participants – under the eye of graphic designers – will try to translate emotions into the language of the image. The starting point will be the slogan “I feel that…”, which will become an inspiration for seeking one’s own concept of a message. During the meeting first preliminary sketches and then original poster designs will be created. The workshop will be led by Maja Wolna with the support of Konrad Gelert.

Maja Wolna – visual artist, poster designer, illustrator and painter. Professor at the M. Abakanowicz University of the Arts in Poznań; she also collaborates with academies in Warsaw and with the Copernicus Science Centre. Winner of many awards, including the Gold Medal at the International Poster Biennale in Warsaw (2010). Her works have been shown in Poland and abroad, including at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. She leads workshops in Poland and abroad, emphasising the development of imagination and of an authorial visual language.

Konrad Gelert – cultural animator, artistic craftsperson, art therapist, coordinator in Erasmus+ educational programmes, founder of the multidisciplinary BAZA Studio; initiator and organiser of Poster Workshops, laureate of the Warsaw Award for Cultural Education. A graduate of the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology, of the Maria Grzegorzewska Academy of Special Education in art therapy with elements of pedagogical therapy, and of the Warsaw School of Photography and Applied Graphic Arts. Creative producer of the Art2Business Foundation.

meeting point in the hall of the Poster Museum in Wilanów / free participation / limited places / bookings by email mces@mnw.art.pl / c. 90 min

MADE-TO-ORDER SESSIONS

MUSEUM LESSONS

PRESCHOOLS AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS / YEARS 1–3

Discovering the world of the poster

Can a poster tell a story? How can a few colours and signs convey an important message? During the session we will get to know posters as distinctive works that can be encountered in the streets of the city. Together we will look at their colours, shapes and depicted figures, and try to guess what their makers wanted to communicate. At the end we will design our own posters, using simple symbols and slogans.

PRIMARY SCHOOLS / YEARS 4–8

The language of the poster

The poster is an artistic genre of applied graphic art that informs, advertises and comments on cultural, social or sporting events. Placed in the public space, it must quickly catch the viewer’s attention and convey a message in a synthetic, memorable form. What makes a poster arresting? During the session we will look at selected posters from the museum’s collection and learn the basic elements of their language: the idea, composition, symbol and lettering. We will also discover the diversity of poster forms – from painterly and typographic works to contemporary digital designs.

UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLS

The poster as a cultural text

Can a poster speak about the world in the same way as a book or a theatre production? What meanings lie hidden in the images and slogans we pass in the street? We will look at works from the collection of the Poster Museum in Wilanów – from Young Poland, through the interwar period and post-war propaganda, to the Polish Poster School. Analysing the posters will make it possible to read the poster as a cultural text – through its symbols, metaphors and hidden meanings.

GUIDED TOURS

We invite groups and individual visitors to tour the exhibition with NMW guides. Dates and times of tours are adapted to the needs of those booking.

Bookings for museum lessons and guided tours are taken Monday to Friday, 9.00–15.00, on tel. 22 621 10 31 ext. 246 or 227.

AUDIOGUIDES AND EDUCATIONAL PRINTS

While visiting the exhibition we encourage you to use the audioguide in Polish and English.

Before entering the exhibition you may also pick up educational prints for children and adults for an active visit to the exhibition.