Waldemar Świerzy
Encyclopedia
Waldemar Świerzy is a Polish artist.
He graduated from the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts in 1952. He has subsequently been Professor in the University of Fine Arts in Poznań from 1965 and Professor in the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
since 1994.
In 1992 the government of Poland issued a postage stamp to honor one of his Cyrk
posters, 'Clown with derby' in 1992. Swierzy is one of the Polish School of Posters
’ most prolific artists (created over 2500 posters).
He employs unusual concepts with a variety of techniques, frequently mirroring Polish social history from 1950s through 1980s. with a myriad of styles: folk art from the 50s, pop art from the 60s, portraits from the 70s, & TV images from the 80s In addition, his Jazz Greats series of famous American jazz personalities has become so well-known that he recently reissued them as signed lithographs. The series includes: Louis Armstrong
, Ray Charles
, Jimi Hendrix
, Charles Mingus
& Charlie Parker
among others.
1959, 1962 - 1st (Toulouse-Lautrec) Prize -1st & 3rd International Film Posters Exhibition, Versailles
, FR
1961, 1962, 1963, 1966 August -”Best Poster of the Month": 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975 February -”Best Poster of the Month”, 1976, 1980, 1983, 1988 -”Best Poster of the Year”, Warsaw’s Best Poster Competition, PL
1964 - 1st Prize -Film Poster, “Poster of the Year”, Copenhagen
, DK
1965 - 1st Prize, 1971-1st Prize, 1975-1st Prize, 1977-2nd Prize, 1985-1st Prize, 1987-2nd Prize, 1989-1st Prize -Polish Poster Biennale, Katowice
, PL
1967, 1971 - Award, Posters -Polish Ministry of Culture & Art, Warsaw, PL
1970 - 1st Prize -X Art Biennale di Sao Paulo
, BR
1972 - 2nd Prize, 1976 -1st Prize -4th & 6th International Poster Biennale, Warsaw, PL
1975 - 1st Prize, 1980 -2nd Prize, 1985-1st Prize -Key Art Award, Posters -The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles
1977 - 1st Prize -II Poster Biennale, Lahti
, FI
1985 – 1st Prize in the Annual Film Poster Competition of “The Hollywood Reporter”, Los Angeles
1985 - 1st, 3rd Prize -”Jazzpo”, International Jazz Poster Exhibition, Bydgoszcz, PL
, Austria
1964 – Documenta Kassel; Kassel
; Germany
1978 – Poster Museum Wilanow; Warsaw, Poland
1980 – Poliforum Sigueros; Mexico City
, Mexico
1982 – Galerie Oxe; Copenhagen, Denmark
1989 – Taldemuseo; Lahti, Finland
1991 – Creation Gallery GB, Tokyo
, Japan
1993 – Festival de Affiche, Chaumont
, France
2000 – Plakat Kunsf Hof; Essen
, Germany
2001 – Museum of Contemporary Art; Tehran
, Iran
2002 – Muzeum Miasta Wroclawia; Wroclaw
, Poland
Member - Alliance Graphique International [AGI] since 1965.
He graduated from the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts in 1952. He has subsequently been Professor in the University of Fine Arts in Poznań from 1965 and Professor in the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw is a public university of visual and applied arts located in the Polish capital. The Academy traces its history back to the Department of Arts founded at the Warsaw University in 1812. As a separate institution it was founded in 1844 during the Partitions of Poland...
since 1994.
In 1992 the government of Poland issued a postage stamp to honor one of his Cyrk
Cyrk
The name Cyrk may refer to:*Cyrk , a promotions company*A character on the American television program Angel *Cyrk , Polish posters...
posters, 'Clown with derby' in 1992. Swierzy is one of the Polish School of Posters
Polish School of Posters
Beginning in the 1950s and through the 1980s, the Polish School of Posters combined the aesthetics of painting with the succinctness and simple metaphor of the poster. It developed characteristics such as painterly gesture, linear quality, and vibrant colors, as well as a sense of individual...
’ most prolific artists (created over 2500 posters).
He employs unusual concepts with a variety of techniques, frequently mirroring Polish social history from 1950s through 1980s. with a myriad of styles: folk art from the 50s, pop art from the 60s, portraits from the 70s, & TV images from the 80s In addition, his Jazz Greats series of famous American jazz personalities has become so well-known that he recently reissued them as signed lithographs. The series includes: Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
& Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
among others.
Major awards
1956 - Tadeusz Trepkowski Prize, Warsaw, PL1959, 1962 - 1st (Toulouse-Lautrec) Prize -1st & 3rd International Film Posters Exhibition, Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
, FR
1961, 1962, 1963, 1966 August -”Best Poster of the Month": 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975 February -”Best Poster of the Month”, 1976, 1980, 1983, 1988 -”Best Poster of the Year”, Warsaw’s Best Poster Competition, PL
1964 - 1st Prize -Film Poster, “Poster of the Year”, Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, DK
1965 - 1st Prize, 1971-1st Prize, 1975-1st Prize, 1977-2nd Prize, 1985-1st Prize, 1987-2nd Prize, 1989-1st Prize -Polish Poster Biennale, Katowice
Katowice
Katowice is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, on the Kłodnica and Rawa rivers . Katowice is located in the Silesian Highlands, about north of the Silesian Beskids and about southeast of the Sudetes Mountains.It is the central district of the Upper Silesian Metropolis, with a population of 2...
, PL
1967, 1971 - Award, Posters -Polish Ministry of Culture & Art, Warsaw, PL
1970 - 1st Prize -X Art Biennale di Sao Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, BR
1972 - 2nd Prize, 1976 -1st Prize -4th & 6th International Poster Biennale, Warsaw, PL
1975 - 1st Prize, 1980 -2nd Prize, 1985-1st Prize -Key Art Award, Posters -The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
1977 - 1st Prize -II Poster Biennale, Lahti
Lahti
Lahti is a city and municipality in Finland.Lahti is the capital of the Päijänne Tavastia region. It is situated on a bay at the southern end of lake Vesijärvi about north-east of the capital Helsinki...
, FI
1985 – 1st Prize in the Annual Film Poster Competition of “The Hollywood Reporter”, Los Angeles
1985 - 1st, 3rd Prize -”Jazzpo”, International Jazz Poster Exhibition, Bydgoszcz, PL
Major Exhibitions
1960 – Galerie in der Biberstrasse; ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
1964 – Documenta Kassel; Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
; Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
1978 – Poster Museum Wilanow; Warsaw, Poland
1980 – Poliforum Sigueros; Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
1982 – Galerie Oxe; Copenhagen, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
1989 – Taldemuseo; Lahti, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
1991 – Creation Gallery GB, Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
1993 – Festival de Affiche, Chaumont
Chaumont
-France:* Chaumont-Porcien, in the Ardennes département* Chaumont, Cher, in the Cher département* Chaumont-le-Bois, in the Côte-d'Or département* Arrondissement of Chaumont, in the Haute-Marne département...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
2000 – Plakat Kunsf Hof; Essen
Essen
- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...
, Germany
2001 – Museum of Contemporary Art; Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
2002 – Muzeum Miasta Wroclawia; Wroclaw
Wroclaw
Wrocław , situated on the River Oder , is the main city of southwestern Poland.Wrocław was the historical capital of Silesia and is today the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. Over the centuries, the city has been part of either Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, or Germany, but since 1945...
, Poland
Member - Alliance Graphique International [AGI] since 1965.