Artist of the day: Artist of the day, April 14 2020: Wojciech Zamecznik, a Polish graphic artist, architect, photographer and interior designer (#968)

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Artist of the day, April 14 2020: Wojciech Zamecznik, a Polish graphic artist, architect, photographer and interior designer (#968)

Wojciech Zamecznik (1923-1967) was a Polish poster designer. Between 1940 and 1942, he studied at the Interior Design Department of the Higher School of Engineering in Warsaw and took part in the secret courses of the Warsaw University of Technology's Architecture Faculty. After the war, the continued studying at the University of Technology. He was detained at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

Zamecznik's most notable works are movie and socio-political posters. He created his own, ascetic poster style which was derived from traditional forms of constructivism and Bauhaus. He was also an author of book graphics and magazine designs. He designed also some remarkable record covers for the label Polskie Nagrania Muza

He designed over two hundred posters. His ascetic moderation stood out in a time when Polish posters favored baroque abundance. For Wojciech Zamecznik, a poster was a mathematical operation – he aimed at reducing complex patterns to the simplest solutions, a sum of two or three elements. He was keen on fusing photography and graphic signs, and often organized an entire poster around a single element. He sometimes stopped at reducing his equation to a sign, but manipulated photography with a true alchemist's delight: he corroded it with acid, inverted, tortured it in processing trays, soaked in a bathtub, framed, cut up, wrung it, to eventually extract its essence, a condensed effect, a powerful and pure resonance.

© 2020. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Wojciech Zamecznik or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only