Very Graphic: Henryk Tomaszewski | Case Study

Witold Gombrowicz (1983)
New Theater, Warsaw

"My chief goal is to fit nothing and no one."

- During his studies, also worked with the satirical weekly Szpilki.

- 1947, began working with Polish Film (Film Polski), designing their posters.

- The innovative style of these was recognised at the International Poster Exhibition in Vienna, 1948.

- 1950, moved to Warsaw and worked for two years as the stage designer at Teatr Syrena. He also published drawings in Przeglad Kulturalny (1956-1962)

pg. 164 - 'In 1947, Polish Film issued 13 posters by Tomaszewski for films, which at the time hardly needed advertising. 

'In these works the designer in a completely novel way introduced lettering to the poster - often hand-written. The fusion of selected motif, powerful colour effects and virtuosity of brushstroke and lettering in a compositional whole is one of this Polish graphic artist's most important achievements, an approach that was later continued in the posters of many other artists'

 1. Hadrian VII (1969), Dramatic Theater in Warsaw

2. Hamlet (1962), Dramatic Theater in Warsaw

pg. 165 - '...The artist presented the film's subject matter by innovative means unseen before in graphic design. Given the opportunity to watch a film in a pre-release screening, he tried to endow the poster with its atmosphere or present its subject matter symbolically.'

'During the most difficult period, prior to the political thaw in 1965, it was the Film Lease Headquarters that provided the greatest freedom in poster design. Here, no one imposed any formal solutions or exerted commercial pressure, the only requirement being that posters be legible and compatible with a film's subject matter.'

'Tomaszewski took full advantage of this laissez-faire policy, testing various formal solutions: in some posters he tried out the collage technique and included fragments of film footage in his composition...in others he applied only painting and drawing techniques'

pg. 166 - 'One can see in the posters of this period, including those for plays and exhibitions, the different directions his research and testing took him, often still far from the extreme simplification of future compositions.'

"Oh that Tomaszewski - a great bon vivant, fiendishly sophisticated! Always serves up so little, sometimes merely a few brushstrokes - but of what quality! What juxtapositions, so free, and at the same time so studied, nonchalant and synthesized, what a gamut of subjects, convetions and manners" - Andrzej Oseka

'his striving for maximum content with a minimum of form.'

Henry Moore exhibition poster (1959)

'As time passed, he abandoned the earlier attempts at collage and painting seen in his film posters, and gradually simplified the composition, ridding it of all unnecessary elements'

'One of the first designs of this type was the announcement of an exhibition of sculptures by the well-known British artist Henry Moore (1959), which the designer constructed from cutout letters, giving one of them the function of a pedestal under a Moore sculpture'

'His compositions are mostly built by means of freehand drawings with a brush, sometimes supplemented by a simple cut of the paper. He usually wrote the text to his posters by hand, but was also prepared to employ letters from a set of fonts, often combining the two types of text.'

pg. 168 - 'In Tomaszewski we do not find simple and obvious solutions; even straightforward announcements of exhibitions feature a highly charged interpretation. This was his "claw", a way to intrigue the viewer, to get him to stop in front of a sheet of paper pasted on a street corner, because when carrying out work to order, that was what the artist saw as their proper place.'

' "The life of a poster", he would say "is like that of a butterfly. Anyone can rip it up, paste over it or destroy it. It is a transitory creature. It draws attention, attacks and amuses. It doesn't fit in with traditional publication - these aren't works designed to be contemplated, they aren't suitable for exhibitions." '

 1. Ty i Ja, January cover (1968)
2. Ty i Ja, October cover (1968)

'In addition to drawings to order and those used as illustrations for magazines or books, he produced small sketches, among them caricatures, using felt-tip, ink, pen or brush. His designs can be found on the covers of the magazines Ty i Ja, Projekt and Polska.'

'He also designed several series of book covers for various publishing cycles presenting prose and poetry, including two series of covers for volumes of poetry released in the 1970s and 80s'

pg. 169 - 'He always eluded any classification and evaded any divisions or pigeonholing of his work, faithful to that principle, which he maintained to the end: "My chief goal is to fit nothing and no one."