Waldemar Swierzy
Waldemar Swierzy was one of the early stars of the Polish School of Posters. He has created some of the most iconic and collectible posters in the world, and produced over 2000 different poster designs over the course of his career.
By all accounts Swierzy was a delightful man with a great sense of humour, who adored his family and his country.
Read more about this wonderful Polish poster artist below…
“The poster is an art form that must provoke the viewer to look. It must focus his attention, if only for a few moments.”
Waldemar Swierzy
Waldemar Swierzy was born in 1931 in Katowice. He learnt his art at the University of Kracow under the incredible graphic artist and teacher Jozef Mroszczak, and the painting professor Rafal Pomorski, graduating in 1952. Many of Waldemar Swierzy’s poster designs have a distinct painterly style.
He was persuaded to move to Warsaw by Jozef Mroszczak who was appointed head of graphics at the WAG publishing house. This was one of the first organisations Waldemar Swierzy was commissioned to produce posters for. Over the course of his career he created around 1000 published poster works and was the most prolific artist from the Polish School of Posters.
Swierzy also taught graphics and poster design; as Head of Graphics at the School of Fine Arts in Poznan and Head of the Poster Studio at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. He also lectured in Mexico and Germany. Waldemar Swierzy worked on the jury at many international poster exhibitions and competitions and won many awards of his own. In 1997 he was appointed Honorary Professor of the Jan Matejko Fine Arts Academy in Krakow.
Swierzy loved painting portraits and his series of great jazz musicians were hugely popular and bought him international fame. He also designed over 250 album sleeves. Waldemar Swierzy’s iconic 1973 poster design for the acclaimed US movie ‘Midnight Cowboy’ has become one of the most sought after and valuable Polish posters of all time and secured him as a legend of poster design.
Waldemar Swierzy Posters are held in the collections of:
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Moravska Galerie, Brno
Kunstbibliothek, Berlin
Ermitage, Petersburg
Institute of Contemporary Art, London
Biblioteque Forney, Paris
Museum of Modern Art, Toyama
Poster Museum, Warsaw
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