After arriving in Poland, before the final contest, the contestants for Miss World received a version of an English text of a Polish song, composed especially for the occasion. The best renditions of „Beautiful World” would be recorded on teledisk and make their way to other countries, but the words of the song would relate to Warsaw. In this way beauty would not only be seen but also heard.

Last year, at the initiative of a representative of Warsaw’s city hall, the world famous graphic artist Rafał Olbiński was commissioned to do a poster advertising Warsaw and promoting the Miss World contest. The artist presented his project, Warsaw’s Syrena (half woman, half fish) sitting on a swing. Behind Syrena can be seen a view of the palace and the panorama of the old town. Olbiński’s work appeared in August of this year and caused quite a controversy. The human part of Syrena’s body was only half dressed. Her blouse fell to one side, revealing a realistically enough painted breast. And this was the problem. The poster was deemed too erotic and frivolous; Warsaw’s symbol was supposed to be clothed, so nobody would be shocked. The artist had to paint on a wide sash in order to satisfy the censor.
This minor incident was an excellent advertisement for the artist, since such situations always create publicity for an artist and his work. But additional publicity for Olbiński, born in 1943 in Kielce and a graduate of the Department of Architecture at the Warsaw Polytechnic, was certainly not necessary. He is an artist known abroad as well as in Poland.

Since 1982 he has lived in New York, creating illustrations for many magazines and realizing commissions for posters and paintings. Theater performances, opera companies, and other groups and events in need of promotion often turn to the work of Olbiński. His works have earned him many prestigious prizes from Paris, New York, San Francisco and elsewhere. His images are known in Japan, Australia, England, Canada, and Europe, and, of course, in Poland. He has also done scenes for operas in Cincinnati. In 1995 Olbiński won a contest for an artist advertising New York City as the capitol of the world, besting eleven other artists.

Nearly every two months Olbiński has works on exhibit in different parts of the world. The exhibits are inspired by his favorite motifs. Often near the figures of stylized women the author paints birds, trees, clouds, light fabrics, somehow secretly hidden. His works show a certain delicate poetic humor. His works take the viewer to a magical world of unlimited space, a world of visions and dreams.

For more than ten years now I have been the owner of an Olbiński done for the theater in New York for the play „She Stoops to Folly”. I love this image; framed, under glass, it decorates my hall. It shows a partial profile of a slender woman, apparently full of peace and dignity; on her shoulders, drawn on the folds of her dress, are two masculine profiles – the same person. He is her obsession. The image is composed in colors of bronze and toned whites, reminiscent of the portraits of Rembrandt. The stylized forms, symbols and allegories are the domain of Olbiński. This style approaches that of the leading representatives of surrealism.

Along with the work of Olbiński, it is worth mentioning other graphic artists from Poland, of whom we can also be proud.

Already in the 1950s there existed a Polish school of poster art. Artists based in Warsaw and Krakow were most important to the development of poster art in Poland. Their work provided models for the creations of many young talents, inspiring new tendencies and trends. Postwar Polish poster art developed in the climate of two great figures: Tadeusz Trepkowski (1914-54) and Henryk Tomaszewski (1914-2005). They developed a style recognizable at a glance.

Postwar residents of Warsaw will remember the Tadeusz Trepkowski poster from 1952: „Never again war”. The image showed a flying bomb and in its interior the fragments of a ruined home and the shortest word: „NO”. The poster, enlarged to huge dimensions, was placed on one of the remaining walls of the Kronenberg palace (on the site of today’s Hotel Victoria). The poster was an impressive and eloquent protest amid the ruins of Warsaw. Fifty years later, I still remember the eloquence and strength of the image.

A number of Polish graphic artists did street posters for theatrical works, operas, often with political themes. There are also special works dedicated to the bienniale of the poster and contests involving distinguished artists. Among hundreds of names we can mention only a few: Jan Lennica, Jan Młodożeniec, Franciszek Starowiejski, Aleksander Kobzdej, and Wojciech Fangor. They were all graduates of art and architecture schools.

The more contemporary artists present multicolored images, however always with a great emotional charge and the individual treatment of hidden themes in symbols. In this group we can mention the following: Rosław Szaybo, Stanisław Zagórski, and Bronisław Zelk.

In Wilanów, near Warsaw, before the main gate of the residence of King Jan III Sobieski, can be found the Poster Museum. Many other artists, whom I have not mentioned, can be found there; their work is certainly worth seeing.

Moving from Wilanów to New York, we can mention still other graphic artists like Janusz Stanny, Janusz Kapusta, and Andrzej Dudziński, the author of the famous bird DUDI.
In the field of poster art, we certainly have much of which we can be proud.

Dr Elżbieta Ulanowska
Translated by Sean Martin

Forum, 10/2006

However, it’s also difficult for me to believe in Foremska’s assurance of the „wounded” readers, in whose consciousness the book is a „devastation” because they accepted it without questioning the criminal and feminist interpretation of Christianity introduced by the author. Instead of discussing this book from the point of view of religion and existentialism, I suggest instead that we lower our sights and look at the book as, above all, a literary and cultural phenomenon.
The Da Vinci Code, is written in a style, popular today, of postmodern literary variations on Christian themes. This style stems from a countercultural distaste of Christianity, present especially among liberal and leftist artistic circles in the West. This type of literature achieved its greatest world success in Umberto Eco’s remarkable book, The Name of the Rose. Brown’s book, however, does not stand up to a comparison: it’s much more naive, at moments boring, wordy, and redundant and built around a thin thread of a story. Even a poorly educated reader can detect without difficulty the propaganda the author uses in his narration.

The esoterism and feminism, so popular in today’s mass culture and on which the the entire thread of the story depends, is certainly part of this propaganda. However, the feminist-criminal vision of the truth of Christianity, offered in an esoteric-gnostic sauce, sounds in the book so unbelievable that it is difficult to accept. Further, it doesn’t help that the reader is treated as a collaborator in uncovering the great secrets and demasking the deception apparently committed by the Catholic Church. The entire construction of the book relies on a literary method used often in postmodern literature, the constant shock of the reader.

The author realizes that in today’s fast-paced world the narrative line applied in the literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries would not work for many bored readers. And so each new chapter of Brown’s book introduces a new theme and an unexpected turn in the action. By page 500, the effort to introduce shock has become almost absurd, and a shocking return to the narrative seems unbelievable and finally destroys the entire effect. The further deepening of this unbelievability relies on another fashionable postmodern method, creating variations on a theme, and the author creates the effect of a pastiche. It seems that if Brown, more or less arbitrarily, had recast only the Christian theme, then his book would be more believable. But the literary variation on the theme of two thousand years of Christianity is an area so broad that he is suspected even by the reader not favorably inclined to Christianity. This results from the simple fact that the thesis which he supports, that everything is unbelievable and rests on deception, itself sounds unbelievable and so he, too, can be suspected of deception.

Brown’s most recent book relies in general on the same themes built around a similar criminal-sensationalistic story in a Christian religious context with esoteric secrets. The book is just as thick as The Da Vinci Code; readers will have to decide for themselves whether it’s worth their attention and free time.

Ryszard  Mordarski
Translated by Sean Martin

Forum, 9/2006

The author of this biographical play, Professor Kazimierz Braun, put into this text almost everything about the life and work of the diva of the Polish and American theatrical scene, Helena Modrzejewska, who used the name Modjeska (1840-1909) outside of Poland. The text of the monodrama described Modrzejewska’s earlier and later problems. She was an illegitimate child, a mother of an out-of-wedlock son, and a poor actress learning her trade in traveling troupes. In time, her work brought her great stardom and her marriage to an aristocrat, Karol Chlapowski, assured her social status.At this time her best friends were members of the artistic and social elite. Among others Henryk Sienkiewicz, Stanislaw Wyspianski, Adam Chmielowski (Brother Albert), Ignacy Paderewski, and such outstanding members of the Polish theatrical scene as Wincenty Rapacki, Jozef Kotarbinski, Maria Przybylko-Potocka and others. They were the ones who perceived Modrzejewska as a great actress, appreciated her involvement and fascination with theater and her excellent utilization of means of theatrical expression. She was capable of creating truly psychological figures. She was given great parts in the theaters of Cracow, Warsaw, and Lwow. The public adored her and she received superb reviews.

Modrzejewska left Poland at the peak of her successful career.  She wanted to be a star not only in Poland, but worldwide. At the age of 36 she traveled to America. Here she found herself in the position of a beginner, without a recognized name and knowledge of the language. She was also afraid of the public, which was not as refined as the one she left in Poland. In addition, the house she bought in California was also a disappointment – it did not have the basic conveniences that she had become accustomed to in Poland. All this depressed her, but she did not give up, and after a year of superhuman effort, studying 16 hours a day, she overcame the language barrier. She was also slowly entering the American theatrical circle, and the contacts she made helped her receive engagements. She was becoming famous. During her thirty years as an émigré she was constantly traveling. Sometimes she played two spectacles a day. She toured as many as 26 times across the whole United States, and the preparation for new roles and rehearsals most often took place in a rented train.  Her favored works were plays by Shakespeare and Ibsen, which she made famous in America. She identified herself with the insane Ofelia, the loving Julie, and the fatal Lady  Macbeth.

Her romantic roles were also successful. She was a natural and also beautiful, and was often capable of creating a magical connection with her public.

Modrzejewska went down to the posterity of Polish and American theater as a unique phenomenon. Despite her great successes and fame she was not totally happy – she longed for her homeland.

Returning to the spectacular role created by Maria Nowotarska in the play by Kazimierz Braun, we see on the Centrum stage a small parlour filled with stylish furniture with coffers and luggage. The actress nervously moves around the scene checking if everything is ready for the next long trip. This is a beginning of the retrospective tale about Helena Modrzejewska. Becoming Modrzejewska the actress manipulates her voice, virtually bringing it to a scream then softening it when the text becomes more personal and reflective. She does it masterfully.  Knowing that by varying her voice she intensified the effect on the observer. Maria Nowotarska is an excellent actress, one of the leading artists of Polish film and the theatrical scene. She was educated in the renowned Cracow School of Theatre, where she had outstanding professors, and later, during her working years, excellent directors and colleagues of great class. Her artistic personality was formed by her ability to observe, her sensitivity, and her personal culture. She is elegant, moves with great grace, and has a well formed voice. By using all these elements she reaches our consciousness strengthening our aesthetic impression. That is why we are so moved by her performance.

Another issue worth mentioning is the connection between Nowotarska and Modrzejewska. Maria Nowotarska understands Modrzejewska very well because she too is an actress torn from her country. However, a significant difference between Helena and Maria exists. Modrzejewska created a theater for the English-speaking public, while Maria Nowatorska gives us (who long to hear the beautiful Polish language and see Polish theater) this refined, literary form of our native language. In conclusion there is a need to emphasize the role of the author of the text, Kazimierz Braun, and director Jerzy Kopczewski because together author, director, and actress create the theater.

Dr. Elzbieta Ulanowska
Translated by Józef Hart

Forum, 11/2005