Waldemar Swierzy | One of the world's most prolific poster artists
9 SEPT 1931 - 27 NOV 2013
Waldemar Swierzy in his studio, 1975
Photograph by H. Sielewicz
BY PROJEKT 26 | 9 SEPT 2021
Swierzy was a truly unique talent. He had a face which exuded warmth. Over the course of his career he created more posters than any other Polish School of Poster artists. He was a delight to be around, and partied just as hard as he worked!
Swierzy was great friends of one of the most wonderful poster collectors we know in Poland. He recalls with huge affection Swierzy’s love for overdoing it at parties. When we visited Warsaw early 2020 he gave us a lift in Swierzy’s old Golf which had bought from him towards the end of his life. It’s now worth about £200 and will soon be under new ownership - to a very proud driver who goes by the name of Sylwia Newman!
But we digress… Back to Swierzy! Within his nearly 1000 commissioned posters are some of the greatest designs of all time; highly sought after and critically acclaimed. Swierzy’s poster design for the Midnight Cowboy blew any other versions out of the water.
POSTERS BY WALDEMAR SWIERZY | MIDNIGHT COWBOY, 1973 | TUXEDO CIRCUS BEAR, 1974
One of the reasons Swierzy produced so much was that he started incredibly young. Whilst working as a runner at an advertising agency in Katowice he also carried a bucket of glue for his gaffer who pasted up posters all over town. He was 15 years old when he found out that Katowice was opening an art school.
“I became its youngest student. In the devastated Poland of that time there were a lot of fenced off bomb sites. And these were pasted over with posters, designed by such people as Henryk Tomaszewski. My pals and I decided we weren’t going to wait around, like painters, until the paint was dry and then hope that somebody would exhibit us. Better to have 10,000 copies instantly posted up everywhere, from small villages to the city of Warsaw”. Swierzy graduated from Professor Jozef Mroszczak’s graphic studio with honors in 1952.
Swierzy’s painting style was colourful, bold and dynamic - with explosive and expressive brush strokes.
WALDEMAR SWIERZY | SUNSET BOULEVARD ,1957
Swierzy was different to other artists at the time who were establishing their own distinct style. He strongly considered himself to be a graphic designer rather than an artist, and as such he would adapt his style depending on the subject.
“The most important thing in a poster is its subject. Poster design is really the art of subject matter and every designer knows this, because it constitutes the overriding creative principle in this field of graphics. All other values - technical, artistic - constitute merely further consequences flowing from that primacy of the subject”. Swierzy embraced many different styles over his six decade career. From painterly, to limited colours with more graphic shapes, or flat colours inspired by pop art or forms inspired by folk art, for example.
WALDEMAR SWIERZY | THE LADY FROM MAXIM’S, 1979 (THEATRE) | JAZZ GREATS SERIES - RAY CHARLES, 1990
Whilst designing numerous posters in the fields of film, theatre, culture, music (he was a great jazz lover) and art Swierzy also worked on illustrations for book and magazine covers (Polska, Ty i Ja, Projekt), record covers, calendars, postcards and postage stamps.
So much to love, so much collecting to do!
WALDEMAR SWIERZY | TY I JA MONTHLY NO. 7, 1968 | STAMPS FROM THE SERIES FEMALE FOLK COSTUMES FOR POLISH POSTAL SERVICE , 1983
