Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Jiří Balcar

Painting / Graphic Art / Typography

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• 26th of August 1929, Kolín
• 28th of August 1968, Prague

Education:

• 1947-1948, Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague
• 1948-1953, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (prof. F. Tichý, F. Muzika)

Awards:

• 1960, The most beautiful book of the Year, (Brno ?)
• 1962, Toulouse-Lautrec Prize, Paris (film poster Moby Dick)
• 1964, Honorable Mention, First Czechoslovak Showcase of Poster and Promotional Graphic Art, Brno[^1]

Film posters created: 34 (1960-1967)[^2]

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Czech artist Jiří Balcar could easily belong to one of the most fascinating poster designers of the Sixties. It’s hard to judge by the small number of his posters in our collection, but his artwork as we are finding out, spreads all across the globe (short list bellow). Internationally started off at Farleigh Dickinson University in Madison (New Jersey) where he took part in International Invitational Seminar of Art, followed by exhibition in New York in 1964[^3] , Berlin (1965-66) and Wien (1966). Paris exhibition in Musée d’Art Moderne (1969) was held soon after his early death in 1968.

A wide spectrum of his artistic experiments are brought in from the painting and are reflected in his poster designs. Extensive use of letter templates, sometimes broken into separate parts, wise and bright selection of colours (unless Monochromatic, or sensible mix of both), unconventional use of photography and perfect understanding of space. His faceless figures, motif reappearing on several of his paintings, could become alive only on the film poster.

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Jiří Balcar was the member of several art groups.

• 1957-58, May 57 Group (J.Duchoň, R.Fremund, Z.Palcr …)
• 1958-?, Group G / Skupina G ( L.Dydek, J.Kubíček …)
• 1961-?, Konfrontation (B.Dlouhý …)
• 1961-0, Hollar Association of Czech Graphic Artists (A.Born, J.Duchoň, J.Šalamoun …)
• 1962-1968, Union of Czechoslovak Fine Artists

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His artwork takes place in collections of museums and galleries worldwide. We have picked little selection with direct links.

• The Baruch Foundation (impressive collection of Jiří Balcar‘s portfolio and other artists from behind the “Iron Curtain”), Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
• The British Museum, London, United Kingdom
• Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
• Czech Museum of Fine Arts, Prague, Czech Republic
• Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, USA
• National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA
• Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark
• Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

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Note: this showcase is part of our ongoing article Film posters / Made in Czechoslovakia. The story of film posters.

Sixties film posters available in our shop.

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Literature:

• [^2]:  Flashback / Czech and Slovak Film Posters 1959-1989, ed. Libor Gronský, Marek Perůtka, Michal Soukup, Olomouc Museum of Art, 2004. (p.41)

Online resources:

• abArt / Jiří Balcar
• [^1]:  CzechLit – Czech Literature Online
• [^3]:  The Baruch Foundation

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