Vintage Movie Posters

Poster Designs / Sixties – Jaromír Bradáč. The Story of Film Posters.

Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Jaromír Bradáč

Graphic Art

Pasha, original film poster, poster art
Pasha, Jaromír Bradáč, 1969.

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   Movie poster shown on the picture above has been seen previously in one of our articles on History of Poster Design in Czechoslovakia. It did not stop us from refreshing the memory as we are strongly effected by its expressiveness. Jean Gabin‘s common impression for every French born was broken into uncertainty. Divided into parallel fields as in the rhythm similar to main theme of that phenomenal soundtrack composed by Serge Gainsbourg. Music moves on as we can see even on the letters, one can hear the most peculiar sounds.

Mysterious poster for Georges Lautner‘s film is hiding one extra mystery and that is the poster designer himself. Jaromír Bradáč remains the one, or at least for now. You can count number of his film posters on your left hand and that’s about everything we could track on this fantastic graphic designer. Hopefully the future will show some more light about him, as we believe five film posters is not everything he did.

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Film poster, 1960s poster design
A Study About Women, film poster by Jaromír Bradáč, 1968.

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

You can explore other interesting film poster designs made in Sixties available in our poster shop.

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Poster Designs / Sixties – Adolf Born. The Story of Film Posters.

Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Adolf Born

Painting / Stage Design / Illustration / Graphic Art / Caricature / Animation

Film poster, Adolf Born, 60s poster design
Virgin Soil Upturned – Adolf Born, 1960.

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  • b. 12th of June 1930, České Velenice, Czech Republic
  • lives and works in Prague, Czech Republic

Education:

  • 1949−1950, Charles University, Prague (Faculty of Pedagogy / Art?)
  • 1950−1953, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (Pelc Antonín)
  • 1953−1955, Academy of Fine Arts, Prague (Pelc Antonín)

Awards:

  • many, mostly for his animated films and book illustration (few shown bellow)
  • 1974, caricaturist of the year, Montreal
  • 1979, Golden Apple, Book Illustration Biennials, Bratislava
  • 1985(?), Gold Medal, IBA, Leipzig
  • 1988, Honorary Artist

Film posters designed: 19 (1959-1989)1

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FIlm poster, Adolf Born 60s poster artThe Smallest Show on Earth – Adolf Born / Oldřich Jelínek, 1960.

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To meet with the fantastic world of Czech artist Adolf Born in former Czechoslovakia was not as complicated. One only had to get born there and the ticket for his show was lying in front of you. His visual presence was absolutely everywhere. Book illustrations and television programme was provided for the smallest audience and for those older ones there were magazines covered with his caricatures. He has also made the older population interested into watching animated films for the children.

Adolf Born’s work is well known also to international spectator. His book illustrations (over 400 books) and animated films (by the 1980 he produced 45 of them)2 visited many countries and have taken part in many exhibitions. Humorous depiction is very characteristic in his work. Adolf Born is here to make you smile.

His film poster portfolio extends from early 1960s all the way to mid 1990s, with limited number designed. Adolf Born was preoccupied with other things. Film posters were possibly only other commission he was getting from the art union, where every illustrator/graphic had to be a member. Very few, but all very impressive. If the film poster was not made for the World War II film, it would definitely leave one with the grin on the face.

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Burning Daylight, J.London, cover by Adolf Born
Front cover for the Burning Daylight / Jack London, illustrated by Adolf Born, 1970.

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

Available posters by Adolf Born or other interesting film posters designed in Sixties.

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Resources:

Literature:

  • 1. Flashback / Czech and Slovak Film Posters 1959-1989, ed. Libor Gronský, Marek Perůtka, Michal Soukup, Olomouc Museum of Art, 2004. (p.45)
  • 2. BIB, Bienále Ilustrácií / Biennale of Illustration ’79 ’81, Bratislava; Anna Horváthová, Mladé Letá, 1983 (p.60)
  • 3. Burning Daylight / Jack London; Lidová knihovna, 1970

Online resources:

  • abArt / Adolf Born
  • Český Rozhlas / Czech Radio Broadcast (archive full of interviews with Adolf Born)

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Poster Designs / Sixties – Vladimír Bidlo. The Story of Film Posters.

Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Vladimír Bidlo

Painting / Graphic Art / Illustration

Vladimír Bidlo, Sweet Bird of Youth, Original Film Poster
Sweet Bird of Youth movie poster by Vladimír Bidlo, 1962.
  • 19th of October 1926, Kouřim, Czech Republic
  • 1997, Prague, Czech Republic

Education:

  • 1945−1950, State Graphic School, Prague
  • 1945−1950, Charles University, Prague (Faculty of Pedagogy / Art?)
  • 1945−1950, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (prof. F. Tichý)

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Sixties poster design brought in many interesting artists coming also from other art disciplines. Czech illustrator, graphic and poster artist Vladimír Bidlo is certainly one of them. His adventurous repertoire of film posters starts somewhere in the beginning of 1960s and extends to the mid 1970s. Vladimír Bidlo’s film posters are proving his incredible talent for drawing and illustration (The Appaloosa, below). He also falls for photography and mix the two delicately as can be seen on his earlier film posters.

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We believe poster design for Miloš Forman’s The Firemen’s Ball had to resonate together with the film on its premiere in Cannes 1968, poster depicts the film perfectly. Too controversial for the Communists, film was banned and reappeared again by the end of the 1980s, same for the poster. Film posters created for majority of banned films were designed by the most appealing artists of the time. It is hard to tell if designing of film posters for censored movies had any effect on their future art profession. Vladimír Bidlo’s main focus laid on book illustration and after producing several dozens of excellent film posters he fully returned to that.

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

Available film posters by Vladimír Bidlo.

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Resources:

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Poster Sale / Made in Czechoslovakia / October Sale

Poster Sale with 22% off your basket.

We have prepared another Poster Sale to make our film poster collection accessible to anyone as passionate about the art from Czechoslovakia as we are. Please take advantage of our Poster Sales to get your hands on some of the best designs in the history of poster art. Enter the coupon –

poster art

– into a coupon field when checking out. Sale will run until 7.11.2015. Enjoy!

You can also tell your friends by sharing this link (bellow).

Note: Free shipping on multiple orders. Secure checkout.

Poster Sale. VIntage movie posters.
Poster Sales. 22% off your basket. Type – poster art – in coupon field when checking out.

Jan Kubíček‘s film poster Daddy, Buy me a Puppy, 1964 was used in the image above.

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Poster Designs / Sixties – Jiří Balcar. The Story of Film Posters.

Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Jiří Balcar

Painting / Graphic Art / Typography

The Death of Tarzan, Film poster, 60s Poster Art
The Death of Tarzan movie poster by Jiří Balcar, 1962.

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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, Brno1

Film posters created: 34 (1960-1967)2

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Excellent 60s poster design by Jiri Balcar
This Year in September movie poster by Jiří Balcar, 1963.

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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 19643 , 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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Movie poster, The Dacians, 60s poster design
The Dacians movie poster by Jiří Balcar, 1967.

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Jiří Balcar was the member of several art groups.

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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:

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Poster Designs / Sixties – Rudolf Altrichter. The Story of Film Posters.

Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Rudolf Altrichter

Painting / Graphic Art / Typography.

Before God and Man, poster by Rudolf Altrichter
Before God and Man movie poster by Rudolf Altrichter, 1968.
  • 10th of June 1916, Vienna
  • 8th of September 1978, Bratislava

Education:

  • 1938, Business High School, Trenčín
  • University of Economy, Bratislava

Awards:

  • 1966, Prize for the most beautiful poster of the year.

Film posters created: 32 (1959-1972)1

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It is fairly interesting when thinking of Rudolf Altrichter’s designs for film posters, that behind all this visual trickery is hidden self-taught artist. Originally trained as a sales man (worked also for Bata / shoemaker company) he became one of the most influential Slovak graphic artist. In his thirties he became one of the establishing members of newly reopen Slovak Art Society (1946) and year later co-founder of Association of Slovak Graphic Artists (1947).

Rudolf Altrichter’s film posters are full of visual harmony, unusually blended by pure abstraction and the hints of reality. Human element appears to be one of his strongest standing point, no matter if it is design for art exhibition, film or political poster. Visual harmony is also represented by the use of elegant thin lines and curvy almost psychedelic shapes. Absurdity of the war, another of his characteristic motifs, can be also seen on several of his film posters. Film poster designed for French drama Dangerous Love Affairs / Dangerous Liaisons (shown bellow, designed in 1969), belongs to the selection of the most significant acquisitions of the Poster and Graphic Design Collection of Slovak National Gallery.

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

Available film posters by Rudolf Altrichter or other interesting film posters designed in Sixties.

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Literature:

  • 1. Flashback / Czech and Slovak Film Posters 1959-1989, ed. Libor Gronský, Marek Perůtka, Michal Soukup, Olomouc Museum of Art, 2004. (p.39)

Resources:

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Poster Designs – Anonymous Artists / Sixties. The story of film posters.

Movie posters in history. Showcase of 1960s poster designs.

Poster Designer / Anonymous Artists

It would be very hard to define a common practice or visual language of Anonymous poster designers in Czechoslovakia. Even harder with Sixties, as the period offered so much surprises and unpredictable twists in both politics and culture. It seems like one can never live without the other (somehow never in successful harmony). Specially politicians were always dependant on cultural demagogy, using visual propaganda to their needs.

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Careful and very modern selection of colours was used for both parts of Knights of the Black Cross, 1961.

War movies were always highlights, particularly those showing war heroes in Socialist sort of way. Ongoing currency, no matter what’s the weather.

Symbols, hints and playful thoughts were always around poster making.

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There is nothing unusual about Anonymous artists (if own decision), but being unknown artist in the discipline, where displaying signature is relevant/appropriate (n. Karel Vaca, Dobroslav Foll, Karel Teissig and others) raises several questions.

Earlier in the second part of our article on history of poster art  in Czechoslovakia we have mentioned censorship as the part / instrument of the Communist doctrine. Communist party was  the one and only expert on art, which might sound funny but the reality was not so much, Social Realism did exist, after all. In addition to films ÚPF (Ústřední Půjčovna Filmů/ Formal state distribution 1957 – 1991) was also commissioning movie posters. Both were deciding what could be shown in the cinemas. Were they somehow responsible for hiding artists identity?

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From Switzerland to Vietnam, poster designs made by Unknown Artists covered all sorts of spectacular, if not even controversial movies.

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We know that the film poster committee always consisted of few graphic artists (2-3). They would constantly try to give green light to the proposed poster designs. Were they also turning the blind eye to help fellow artists (obstacle/potential traitors and pests1) in getting at least some sort of a commission? We believe it could be possible as the demand for the movies was quite high and each movie had to have its own poster. Still, for some reasons several artists had to remain unknown.

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By the end of Sixties photography techniques were commonly used in various poster designs. Above another example of photograph overtaking the space.

The Sweet Games of Last Summer (1970), based on Guy de Maupassant’s novel was premiered in Czechoslovakia only once. Film directed by Juraj Herz (The Cremator) came back to distribution again in 19882.

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Looking at their movie posters many years later, we can observe some fascinating poster designs. They do not lack any of the visual qualities of other Czechoslovak poster artists. The pity is, they could never take part in any of the ongoing poster exhibitions of the time. We will possibly never be able to find out who were the authors of those magnificent movie posters, or how many artists were creating anonymously, but they surely deserve our appreciation. Until 1989 hundreds of poster designs were created by Unknown artists. There was no one to hide from after that.

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Literature:

  • 1.  Toto čudesné 21.Storočie / This peculiar 21st century (unofficial translation), Tomáš Štrauss, Kalligram 2009. (Book is not so much about the movie posters, but Tomáš Štrauss, expert on Totalitarian, art critic/historian, said it to the point)
  • 2. https://sk.wikipedia.org/

Note on previous articles:

Other posters designs by Unknown artists on jozefSquare.

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Poster Art / Made in Czechoslovakia. The story of film posters. Take 2.

Poster art in the history. Story of the Czechoslovak film poster in few takes.

When the Cat Comes / directed by Vojtěch Jasný, 1963
When the Cat Comes, directed by Vojtěch Jasný, 1963

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The ideas of cultural revolution of the Sixties were gently spreading across the Czechoslovakia. The death of Stalin resulted in major positive cultural and political changes. Revealing political crimes of the 1950s helped many to react. Cultural institutions were breathing in fresh air and for almost whole new decade possibilities were gradually becoming reality. Country was getting back in bloom and ready for the new era that would bring many significant names in literature, film and art in general.

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Film poster and its visual quality was always present, however “Brussels style” brought in some vitality to poster art. Bright pastel colours and curvy shapes were welcoming cinema enthusiasts on the way to see the films. There was a special platform dedicated to film posters with 6 posters always on display.1 Poster art gallery on the street, if one wants to think. Understanding of newly approaching contemporary cinema also made huge impact on the look of the future poster art. After all photography and film were both sharing so much, not to mention the film frame. Photography was drastically changing its status in poster art and was very often becoming part of the collages, or similar innovative techniques developed by new thinkers.

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• Foreign films were filling up the cinemas, however the choice was very limited. Films criticising western society made by the controversial film directors were the most preferable.

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Film festivals, International reputation, Good bye Stalin!

Sixties brought in various alternative films from behind the Iron Curtain. Visually diverse films were screened in the cinemas across the country and have been admired by many. Culture was adopting new ways of expression and started to imply them further more in daily practise. Names such as Jean Luc-Godard, Luis Bunuel, Michelangelo Antonioni or Federico Fellini were resonating in freshly introduced film magazines, that were not lacking the visual quality of those printed in the West. Rich content was provided by healthy criticism, something unheard of in the past.

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Cinema Magazines from Sixties. Cinema Art.
Good looking magazines with great content appeared in 1960s.

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Appearance of the Czechoslovak films on International film festivals didn’t wait for long. In 1961 first Slovak film A Song About the Grey Pigeon / Stanislav Barabáš enters the Cannes Film Festival.2 Followed by the colourful award winning musical When the Cat Comes / Vojtěch Jasný (Cannes, 1963) and The Shop on Main Street / Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos (Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, 1965). Together with directors as Otakar Vávra or Evald Schorm they were paving up beautiful path for forthcoming generation.

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Czechoslovak New Wave. Sun in the net.

[quote]”We had a feeling that literature is far ahead of the film, mean Slovak film, you know. That it is necessary to find the contact with writers and involve them in Slovak film production. Albert Marenčín”3[/quote]

Light was getting green also for the young film graduates at FAMU (Film faculty, Prague). Immense visual response to the current state of the country was phenomenal. In some cases maybe mere innocent poetic experiments, but the “real film” could not overlook the situation and reality seemed pure irony at the time. Great source of motivation was coming from the literature, many “lost authors” like Alfonz Bednár, Bohumil Hrabal, Jan Johanides, Milan Kundera, Dominik Tatarka and others were giving young film makers valuable hints. By the mid sixties Czechoslovak New Wave was already established. Young directors were influenced by everything worth of observation and wanted to add it to their art. Although the work of Czechoslovak New Wave was praised by international critics, at home with Communist power and their “relevant values” behind the back they were finding great difficulties. Majority of their films were banned right after the premiere and most of those films would not see the screening room until 1989. In many cases their activity was completely stopped, some of them emigrated (Miloš Forman, Jan Němec). Very similar destiny was following the poster art and its creators. Among few of many representatives of New Wave Cinema in Czechoslovakia belongs Věra Chytilová, Dušan Hanák, Elo Havetta, Juraj Herz, Juraj Jakubisko, Jaromil Jireš, Pavel Juráček, Jiří Menzel, Ivan Passer, Štefan Uher, Věra Vihanová, František Vláčil.

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• Surreal nudity. Very few film posters involved images of naked body.

• Witchhammer / dir. Otakar Vávra. Different poster designs for the same film.

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No matter how miraculous they were, pretty much all of the above Czechoslovak films were banned in the late 1960s and onwards. Communists made the shame out of them and they would soon moved all of them to the special archive named “TREZOR” (Communist party safe-deposit box for disturbing material, in this case it was film deposit).

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Film poster and poster artists. Variety in poster art.

One of the main reason why Czechoslovak film poster art became so noticeable was the fact that the surrounding of poster making was made up of rich resource. The sixties has given away the opportunity to try out more courageous and innovative forms. Those were adopted by the groups of painters, sculptors, illustrators and graphic designers who used and mixed them in their own fashion. With strong individual approach rather than uniformed style or tendency, poster design became the playground for all. Extensive use of collage, illustration, photography or typography was applied. They all played important role in poster art and would often encounter on the same film poster. The playful and courageous approach was used by many significant poster designers such as Rudolf Altrichter, Zdeněk Chotěnovský, Zdeněk Kaplan, Zdeněk Palcr, Karel Teissig, Karel Vaca or Zdeněk Ziegler. Having been schooled as sculptors, painters, book illustrators, architects or sometimes self-taughts, poster designs were handled in all possible manners. From the dominating titles set across the poster to decomposing the subject into reduced forms.

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21.8.1968. Invasion of Czechoslovakia

The strongest and the most critical films of Czechoslovak cinema emerged in the second half of the sixties. As we know there is no place for criticism in any political regime. Sixties remained a myth for next twenty years and were systematically erased by Socialist invention called “Normalization”. That did not however stop poster designers from carrying on, as Zdeněk Ziegler puts it “all of us had the same enemy, after all”. 4

Before we enter poster art of 1970s, we thought that you might enjoy a little visual intermezzo. Sixties poster artists and detailed description about their studies, exhibitions and related informations are getting together for the next part.

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• Master Executioner / dir. Paľo Bielik, test print of unrealised version of the 1966 film, with Slovak version of The Seventh Seal / dir. Ingmar Bergman that have possible never seen the light either, printed at the back.

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[quote]”It is getting even worst. It’s hard to say, where is the end of the road we have not chosen. Somewhere has been decided, that this generation must remain forgotten. Whole army of chief executives and referees gathered together and they all came up with strictly planned programme. Instead of Poledňák there came Purš, instead of Harnach – Šťastný, instead of Kunc – Toman. Common sense refuses to believe it, but for several months, these three gentlemen have been working hard on the disposal of Czechoslovak film. 19.2.1971 / Pavel Juráček”5[/quote]

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Poster art by Jan Meisner, 60s poster
322 / Dušan Hanák, Jan Meisner, 1969.

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1.Vratislav Hlavatý for the Czech Radio Interview / 29.3.2013
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannes_Film_Festival
3.Albert Marenčín / Golden Sixties, TV document, dir. Martin Šulík, 2009. (Albert Marenčín / artist, writer, surrealist and former director of one of the artistic group of film producers in Slovakia (Produced also Sun in the Net). He was very much responsible for pulling Slovak young film directors to studios in Bratislava)
4.Zdeněk Ziegler for the Czech Radio Interview / 15.5.2013.
5.The Key for Determining Dwarfs or The Last Travel of Lemuel Gulliver, dir. Martin Šulík, 2002.

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Additional research:

Literature:

  • Flashback / Czech and Slovak Film Posters 1959-1989, ed. Libor Gronský, Marek Perůtka, Michal Soukup,  Olomouc Museum of Art, 2004.
  • Elo Havetta (1938-1975) / Václav Macek, SFÚ, 1990.

Online web:

Note: First take on history of Poster art in Czechoslovakia. For shop and blog highlights SUBSCRIBE to our weekly newsletter.

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