Henryk Tomaszewski

A first printing Polish Jazz Jamboree festival poster.

• Henryk Tomaszewski (Polish, 1914-2005).
• This work is presented unframed.

The end of the Second World War marked the dawn of a new period in the development of Polish poster art, which became known as the Polish School of Posters. The recently installed Communist regime began commissioning artists to design posters not only with social and political messages, but also, and more prominently, to promote the many aspects of the government-run (Ministry of Art and Culture) cultural media: concerts, exhibitions, film, jazz, opera, theater, etc. and the circus (cyrk in Polish). The artists were instructed to reject Western values in their posters and were to follow rules about appropriate messaging, but other than that, they had complete artistic freedom. This resulted in some truly unique and bold designs, chock-full with individual personality, wit and subversive commentary. Heavy in metaphors and symbolism and executed in a painterly fashion with handcrafted typography, the posters of the Polish School of Posters significantly influenced the international development of graphic design. The highly original designs remain contemporary to this day and continue to gain appreciation.

The Jazz Jamboree Festival, one of the largest and oldest jazz festivals in Europe, takes place in Warsaw. Throughout the years, its stage has hosted jazz celebrities like Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Ornette Coleman, Ray Charles and Miles Davis.

The first Jazz Jamboree was organized by Hot-Club Hybrydy. It was three days long (18 to 21 September 1958) and it was called "Jazz 58." The first three editions of the festival took place in the student club Stodoła (with some of the concerts in Cracow). Then the venue was changed to Filharmonia Narodowa, and since 1965, all editions have taken place in Sala Kongresowa in the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw.