Western Amerykanski: Polish Poster Art and the Western [Paperback]

Kevin Mulroy (Editor), Autry Museum of Western Heritage (Corporate Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1999

The figure of Gary Cooper as the proud frontier sheriff striding down the street in the 1952 American Western High Noon is as much a symbol of dignity and courage in contemporary Poland as it is in the United States. In 1989, for Poland's first free election since the Communist takeover, the political party Solidarity dramatically and successfully used that image of Cooper on a campaign poster urging voters to respond to their country's own 'high noon' - their critical moment of decision. The Western motion picture, from its silent days on, exported an epic vision of America.William S. Hart, John Wayne, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Clint Eastwood, and Kirk Douglas became legendary heroes throughout the world, and especially in Poland. In postwar Poland, film poster artists employed the universally recognized symbols of the Western - horse, six-shooter, boots, tin-star badge, Stetson, saddle - to convey violence as a negative force. Unlike many other art forms, the film poster did not fall within the censor's domain because it was not expected to pose a threat to the social order. But messages were conveyed through subtle means of symbol and color.The Polish poster has been likened to the Trojan horse, with the artist smuggling messages onto the streets in the guise of ephemera. The posters displayed so strikingly in this book, and discussed in three essays, are from the golden age of Polish poster-making, the mid-1940s to the 1970s. They are part of the collection assembled by the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, the Western poster holdings of which include more than a hundred created in Poland - the largest such collection outside of Poland itself.Kevin Mulroy is director of the research center at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles. Other contributors include Edward Buscombe, former head of the British Film Institute in London; Frank Fox, a former professor of Eastern European history and expert on Polish poster art; Mariusz Knorowski, international programs coordinator at the Center of Polish Sculpture in Oronsko and former curator of the Polish Poster Museum in Wilanow; and translator Aneta Zebala, a paintings conservator in Santa Monica, California.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This arcane work, published concurrently with a show at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles, is a history of Polish-made film posters that advertised American Westerns during the Communist era. The Western genre and its iconography have resonated powerfully for moviegoers living under repressive governments, and since the silent era Polish audiences have flocked to American Westerns. The fact that the genre itself evolved into less heroic and idealized iterations during the Cold War sometimes played into the hands of the East's ideological goals. For Polish artists the Western film poster offered a chance to pursue aesthetic goals otherwise unattainable within the official canonic style. This book offers a huge range in the quality of the poster art--all by artists virtually unknown outside of Poland--with the pinnacle perhaps being the cartoonish typography and figures of the 1960s. This is truly a niche item, of use only to art libraries supporting a graphic arts curriculum.
-Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L., CA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

" . . . a book that not only shows some of the best Polish posters . . . but also illuminates rather peculiar facets of communist cultural politics in Eastern Europe . . . A fitting farewell to two powerful legends so skillfully retold in this engaging book." -- Jaroslaw Anders in Los Angeles Times Book Review, Sunday, February 13, 2000

"Well produced, innovative, and encyclopedic, this is certainly the most impressive book I know on the form and function of film advertising." -- Richard Koszarski in Film History (journal), Vol. 12,

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 229 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Washington Pr; First Edition edition (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0295978139
• ISBN-13: 978-0295978130
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 8.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,274,030 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Western Amerykanski, July 17, 2000

By 

Mary Quirarte (2520 Falcon Way, MidlothianTX 76065) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Amerykanski: Polish Poster Art and the Western (Paperback)

This book is quite a remarkable piece. It is the catalog for an art exhibit of Polish movie posters for American movie Westerns. The style is bold, full of mostly flat color harking to the American 1950-60's Saul Bass style of movie posters. The text which accompanies the posters is rich with storytelling of how the American Western is perceived in other parts of the world. Also, fascinating facts of life for the artists in Poland and why they generally preferred the Indians to the cowboys and why some of their cowboys have Nazi boots and Lugers. There was much censorship in Poland at this time, but noone remembered to censor the movie posters and the artists used this as a window for social commentary.