Polish poster art in post-war Germany

These hymns of praise for Polish poster art are also remarkable from the point of view of historiography because they clearly invite us to revise a cliché of reception history. Prior to 1990 reviewers in the West were generally considered to have always treated art from Central and Eastern Europe with ignorance, arrogance, at best with paternalistic patronage, and to have viewed their avant-garde styles, if at all, as merely epigonal copies of Western currents. When it came to reviewing Polish poster art, especially in the 1960s, the opposite was decidedly the case. This was the art form that set recognized standards in the West and was warmly praised as a shining example for its own graphic artists. For example, Erich Pfeiffer-Belli wrote, “One could blush with shame," when comparing the "graphic poverty" of some West German posters with their Polish counterparts. And he strongly recommended that "German graphic designers take a close look at these works, not in order to copy them, but to be encouraged to experiment."[4]

The popular educational value of Polish poster art was also repeatedly emphasized not only on the Polish side, but also in West Germany. As art in public spaces, it was regarded as an educator of the people, so to speak. Indeed, a number of West German art critics and art educators were somewhat envious of Poland, where good taste could literally be learnt on the streets, on advertising columns and house walls. It was probably a gross overestimation of this particular medium, but that remains to be seen. (Fig. 4)