Signs of the times

The Poster Museum at Wilanów in Warsaw kicked off its Japanese Poster exhibit last Friday with the help of some local and foreign dignitaries, including Japanese Ambassador Ryuichi Tanabe and Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz.

The exhibit of 120 works comes from Dai Nippon Printing's prestigious DNP Archives of Graphic Design in Tokyo. It presents 15 years of graphic art, from established masters to the more rebellious talent of today. The show illustrates the rapid evolution of Japanese civilization through contemporary elements of manga, computer graphics, pop art, montage and collage as it explores the significance of globalism and digital technology within Japanese society and culture.

The 10 renowned artists featured in the exhibit - including Kazumasa Nagai, Ikko Tanaka, Mitsuo Katsui and Tadanori Yokoo - are considered masters of the classic poster form. Their works are complemented by pieces from the freshest graphic artists in Japan today, Keiko Hirano, Taku Satoh, Kashiwa Sato and Kenjiro Sano among them.

Maria Kurpik, director of the Poster Museum and curator of the show, summed up the range of styles, saying, "The exhibition puts the works of all the greats side by side with those of the new generation - painting a full picture of the poster-art scene."

Exhibitions of Japanese poster art have taken place in Poland since the early 1990s and have met with a great deal of interest from the public.

"The ties between Polish and Japanese poster design have always been quite close," explained Kurpik. "They can even be considered 'inspired rivals' in a sense - artists of both nations draw inspiration from each other in spite of a global spirit of rivalry."

The Japanese Poster exhibit will run until November 25. For more information log on to www.postermuseum.pl