Artist of the day: Artist of the day, May 28: Wiesław Rosocha, a Polish illustrator and graphic designer (#704)

Wiesław Rosocha (1945) is a Polish illustrator and graphic designer. In 1969-1974, he studied at the Graphic Arts Faculty of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He received a diploma from Professor Henryk Tomaszewski’s poster design workshop. In 1975-1978, he worked at the academy as an assistant in the painting workshop ran by Teresa Pągowska.

Over the years, he has collaborated with many theatres. Moreover, he has worked with a range of publishing houses in Poland and abroad, social and cultural magazines, as well as extras for the daily newspapers.

The externally commissioned works usually do not contain lettering in the sketch phase, which enables the artist to blur the boundary between fine and applied arts. This is why his hand-made drawings, created without the use of computer, and coloured collages act as autonomous works. This is owed to the clear, colouristically sophisticated form and the wealth of the artist’s imagination, which allow for a multi-faceted interpretation of his works.

Rosocha’s own, unique graphic language combines the metaphorical, surreal, and emotional perception of the world with a constantly alive and fertiletradition of level-headedreasoning, whose result is a ‘work based on precisely developed elements which define the goal of this piece.’

Rosocha maintains an exceptionally precise drawing style, complemented and enhanced by suggestive edges of forms emerging from underneath one another, which often confirm his artful use of the collage technique.

On the other hand, in the series of posters dedicated to Henryk Tomaszewski (Hommage à Henryk Tomaszewski, 2008-2009), in which he pays an homage to his master, Rosocha interprets the titular theme through a sophisticated and whimsical approach to the physiognomy of the father of the Polish School of Posters – with all his characteristic, distinct features: the bald head, round glass frames, bushy eye brows.

Wiesław Rosocha has won many awards. Among others, he was the recipient of the First Prize from the Polish Association of Book Publishers for the Most Beautiful Book of 1980, gold medal at the 6th Poster Bienniale in Lahti, gold medal at the International Exhibition ‘ The Art Directors Club’ in New York, Grand Prix at the 1st Biennale of Illustration in Aki Town (Japan), Yusaku Kamekura International Design Award at the 8th International Triennial of Poster in Toyama (Japan) for his auteur posters from the series Hommage á Henryk Tomaszewski (2009), etc...

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