| Majid
Abbasi: Poster Exhibition, 2002 |
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Jan
Lenica poster exhibition in Tehran
November
7-17, 2002; Niavaran Cultural Complex, Tehran, Iran.
A
poster selection from Morteza Momayez private collection and Dydo
poster collection, Cracow in memoriam of Jan Lenica (1928-2001)
by “The 5th Color” and with efforts of Iranian Graphic
Designers Society (IGDS).
For more information: www.posterpage.ch
or www.graphiciran.com
Unforgettable
Memories
It really feels as if it was only yesterday that I met this great
artist. The International Short and Documentary Film Festival honoured
his cinematic creations with a special prize. We sat talking in
the hall of the largest cinema in Krakow, and he told me of his
plans for the future, his preparation for his new film, and just
a little later I opened his first individual exhibition in Krakow.
Regretfully, today he is no longer with us.
A man of extraordinary talent and many faceted artistic interests
who was, to my generation in practical terms mysterious and inaccessible.
I first encountered his work, chiefly from posters, almost from
the time of my childhood. When I was growing up, he was already
living abroad. I learned of his first major prize, for the poster
"Wozzek", from the radio, and about his first individual
exhibition in Poland from the press. However, it would have been
difficult for me to make the journey to Poznan to see it. Undaunted,
I continued in my dogged pursuit of his work. Films, posters, illustrations,
and postage stamps which he had designed finally led me to meet
him in person in Berlin.
In the years of my youth it was very difficult to travel abroad
from Poland. And it was harder still to save up the money for a
trip of that kind, and everyone had to find his own solution. I
discovered that there was great interest in our Polish posters abroad.
Hence it was that I crossed the border between East and West Berlin,
the border between two different worlds, with a roll of posters
under my arm. Literally next door to Berlin Zoological Garden's
station I found a large students canteen, at the same time finding
students who wished to buy the posters. It turned out that the posters
were comparatively cheap.
Laying out the posters on the floor, presenting a pretty good art
exhibition, I had not noticed the attention being paid to these
proceedings by a man who was somewhat older than the rest of us.
When I had finished "working" he asked me who I was and
where I was from. At this point it turned out that he had heard
that I was something of a collector. He invited me to visit him
in his institute, which was literally a few metres away, into his
workshop. This is how my acquaintanceship with Professor Lenica
began. Diffidently I asked him at once whether I might in the future
be able to count on access to his posters, which, being printed
outside Poland, were unavailable to me. He promised that I could.
When I wrote to him I always encountered friendliness, and he never
refused me. I believe that he appreciated my role in the propagation
of Polish poster art. An art which has, with every passing year,
changed, perfecting its form, which the Polish poster deserved.
This is partly due to him.
When someone asks me which Polish poster artist I admire most, I
am placed in a difficult situation, and always name three, whose
"images" I have enjoyed, whose posters I saw on the street
as a young boy going to school.
Jan Lenica is and will always be one of those named.
Krzysztof Dydo, Cracow 26.09.02
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