Abstract
In which ways is contemporary Polish culture as the culture of post-communist society changing? As a case study dealing with this question, the main topic of this article is the Polish poster which is seen as a field expressive of the institutions and mechanisms determining the character of Polish society and culture. The aim is to demonstrate the relationship between three major spheres of society - art, market and politics. The main objective of the era of so-called `real socialism' was complete state control over all forms of culture. The corresponding centralisation moved the poster outside the realm of supply-and-demand relations and politically controlled it through the mechanisms of orders, financing and censorship. The paradox of the poster culture in `real socialism' emerged with the poster's double liberation, i.e., a weakening of its dependence on business and advertising, and later on politics. In Poland the poster developed not as an instrument of advertising or propaganda, but as an art form, and it thus retained its character as an art product.
This article describes the changes in poster art with the economic and political demise of the communist system. Westernisation and the importing of advertisements, for instance, led to a switch from poster painting to photography, from the artist's personal expression to the product image. The roles of designer and producer of posters have thus been interchanged. How can the artistic poster survive in a market-orientated society? What type of new institutions and opportunities will emerge in this new situation? This change of roles can also be interpreted to point the way to a reeducation of society as a whole.
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