Feature: THE BIG PICTURE - Exhibition - Major retrospective of Polish surrealist Roman Cieślewicz - Royal College of Art, Kensington

Published: 22 July 2010

A MAJOR retrospective exhibition of the work of influential Polish graphic designer and surrealist Roman Cieślewicz – the first of its kind in Britain – is currently taking place at the Royal College of Art in Kensington.

Cieślewicz’s career spanned the terrible events of the Second World War – a cataclysm for his country – as well as the decades of postwar communism and the end of the Cold War. 

Born in Lwów (then a part of Poland, now the town of Lviv in the Ukraine), he migrated to Paris in 1963. 

In the early 1960s he was a member of the Panique surrealist group alongside Fernando Arrabal and Alejandro Jodorowsky. 

He also worked as an art director at the magazine Elle and a contributor to Vogue, and collaborated with figures from the worlds of advertising and fashion including Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton. 

More than 150 of Cieślewicz’s key works are on show at the Royal College of Art, including dramatic Polish posters advertising Hitchcock’s psychological thriller Vertigo that were acclaimed for bringing a bright burst of fantasy to the usually staid visual culture and sinister monoliths of 1950s Warsaw. 

Also on show are Cieślewicz’s collages reworking images of icons such as Che Guevara and Mona Lisa and crocodile illustrations for Street of Crocodiles – the famous short story about a labyrinthine town by murdered Polish writer Bruno Schulz. 

A satirical view of the influence of the media was the hallmark of some of Cieślewicz’s final works, as evidenced in his exhibition and book project “Pas de Nouvelles – Bonnes Nouvelles” (“No News is Good News”, 1986).

Throughout his career Cieślewicz also produced powerful political statements about the dignity of humanity in the face of injustice, including work for Amnesty International. 

“I always go for the maximum picture and the maximum information,” Cieślewicz’s once said. “You need to stimulate imagination to the maximum.” The sentiments are borne out in the bold images on show here.

A programme of special events include:
• Saturday July 24, 2-4pm. RIP – a workshop exploring the language of the photocopied image with Åbäke graphic design collective. Free, but please book in advance: email rsvp@polishculture.org.uk (or leave your name at the entrance of the exhibition).
• Saturday July 31, 2-3pm. Curators Andrzej Klimowski and David Crowley will lead a tour of the show. Free. No booking required.
• Roman Cieślewicz is in the Gulbenkian Galleries at the Royal Collage of Art, Kensington Gore, SW7, until August 7, Monday-Saturday 11am-7pm, entry free