|
A
long-distance friendship
by Morteza Momayez
Jan
Lenica was born in 1928 in Poznan, Poland. His father was a famous
violinist and also a painter. Jan who was deeply impressed by his
father, finished his studying in the field of music but instead
of music and painting which were his father's favorites, he began
his career as a caricaturist and illustrator for books and magazines.
After the suffers of World War II by the Nazzis, which caused him
to return to Poland. He went to Warsaw and at the Polytechnic School
decided to study architecture. Even after graduating in this field,
he did not continue working as an architecture. By following a friend’s
suggestion, he designed his first poster for a play. He designed
lots of modern posters and within fourteen years in printing Center
of Cinematic Posters of Poland (CWF) became a famous poster designer
in Poland. Henryk Tomaszewski, the great teacher and master, invited
him to work as his assistant in The Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts.
This was a great happening in his life.
In 1956, Lenica got the opportunity to design the Polish pavilions
in different internationalexhibitions in Vienna, Izmir, London and
Paris. The folliwng year, he became interested in film animation.
He made his first and second short films with the cooperation of
Walerian Borowczyk. His second short film named "house"
won the Grand Prix at the International Competition of Experimental
Films in Brussels, 1958 . In 1959, he made his third film in Paris
named "Monsieur T?te" with Eugene Unesco’s voice
over. This won the Emile Cohl Prize and soon he designed and directed
another film, "Janko le Musicien"l, in Poland. Lenica
never forgot about designing books and posters while he was making
films. He won the Toulouse-Lautrec Awarde in Paris. Later on, he
made a film named "Labirynt". At the time, Lenica was
a famous artist but he was best-known in the world as a modern Polish
poster designer, though he never left filmmaking. Then he left Poland,
heading to Paris, Germany and The United States. He stayed a year
in The United States but finally chose Germany to settle down. There,
he designed scenes and clothes for Wisbaden and Koln Opera Houses.
When he went to Paris, he designed a poster for Roman Polanski's
film "Cul de Sac", with the cooperation of the French
graphic designer Alain Le Quernec. Later on, Le Quernec organized
an exhibition of his works in order to make him more recognized
than ever in France.
At that time, I visited Roman Cieslewisz, another Polish designer,
and Jan Lenica every time I traveled to Europe. I wanted to organize
individual exhibitions of their works in Tehran. Lenica accepted
this offer and suggestion immediately and gave me some of his works.
Most of these works are shown in this exhibition. I often saw them
having arguments and I was surprised by this fact and that these
things happen everywhere! Afterwards I started visitng Cieslewisz
more often than Lenica, who was usually in Germany or was on trips.
He used to teach in the Kassel High School as well as teaching filmmaking
elsewhere.
In 1980, Center Georges Pompidou in Paris organized an exhibition
of his works as well as a festival of his short and long films.
I was very excited to see him but I couldn't. Some years ago when
I was in Germany I found out that the German government has given
him an important artistic award. Eventually I could talk to him
on the phone and congratulate him while I was in Berlin. He asked
me about his exhibition in Tehran and I told him: "I'll do
it as soon as possible and of course I'll invite you to Tehran".
I thought one of Tehran's Biennials was a good opportunity to have
his posters shown but unfortunately I couldn't find them and when
I heard he had passed away I was deeply sorry. I recently moved
and I could find his posters to be shown in this exhibition for
the first anniversary of his death. I know I owe him forever.
momayez@graphiciran.com
>Back
|
