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January 31, 2006
Divadlo za branou / Theater beyond the Gate
One of the great things about the Winters Collection is its sampling of performing arts posters, three of which advertise productions at the well-known Divadlo za branou (Theater beyond the Gate) in Prague. This theater no longer exists, but it is still remembered as a venue for innovative stagings and top-notch dramaturgy and performances. The theater was started in 1965 by, among others, the director Otomar Krejča and the playwright Josef Topol; in 1972, however, the Ministry of Culture shut it down for vague "technical reasons." (It was revived in 1990 as Divadlo za branou II but had to close for lack of funding in 1995.) At the height of its popularity this theater company had the feel of a workshop, in the Chekhovian tradition, where original, creative ideas could be played out (literally) for experimentation purposes.
The originality and creativity of Divadlo za branou arguably is corroborated by the graphic design of its posters. Here is a poster from 1971 that endorses a double production of Sophocles' tragedies Oedipus and Antigone. [Note: This image is viewable only by UIUC-affiliated patrons who have a NetID and proxy password.] There is something viscerally terrifying about this stark black-and-white illustration of a ravaged head, with what appear to be hollowed-out eyes (recalling Oedipus blinding himself) and a mouth agape, showing mostly black (like the eyes)--as if to suggest a muteness or helplessness. These tragedies by Sophocles are about characters who arrive too late (Antigone has hung herself before Creon can get to her) or come upon realizations too late (Oedipus discovers he murdered his father and that Jocasta is his mother). In a sense, what is a more helpless feeling than comprehending, "What's done is done," and that there is no turning back?
I have been looking for information on "Brom/Kopřiva," the team that designed these posters for Divadlo za branou but, so far, nothing has turned up. If any readers know of possible sources to consult for information on artists with these names, I hope you'll post on the comment board.
Posted by at 3:28 PM
January 18, 2006
New Look to Winters Collection Website
The website where the Winters Collection digitization project is described has a new look. See: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/spx/winters/index.htm.
In revamping the site, I've tried to make the various components of the project a little clearer. Future plans include:
- Expanding on "Collection Resources" by grouping the posters according to subject, style, and/or period and providing relevant secondary resources for further reading and research along these lines.
- Revising the EAD to include links to the digitized images for which there is metadata.
- Featuring a different digital image of a poster as copyright holders grant reproduction permissions.
Comments and/or suggestions regarding the new site are welcome!
Posted by at 10:46 AM
January 4, 2006
A Sampling of Czech Posters
The site "Czech Graphic Design 50 Best Czech Posters," put out by the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization (JIDPO), exhibits images of some of the best Czech posters produced between the early 1980s and the late 1990s. More of graphic artist Čestmír Pechr's work can also be found here.
These posters are linked from the Japanese version of JIDPO's site, where they have a page devoted to international graphic design. One link in particular, "Graphic Design Brno 1997 Collection," takes users to even more images of Czech posters. Brno is where the Biennale of Graphic Design is held; I will post on the Biennale here at a later date.
Posted by at 11:27 AM
An Introductory Resource to Czech & Slovak Posters
When we began working on this project in the fall of 2004 (viewing the collection, getting a sense of what would be involved in terms of repair/restoration, agreeing on a metadata scheme, meeting with the digital services staff, etc.), I trolled the Web for any information I could find on Czech posters. One of the first resources I came upon was an article, "Contemporary Czech and Slovak Poster Design," written by art historian and former reference librarian, Anna Dvořák. The article is based on a lecture she gave at the National Humanities Center in September 1998, in accompaniment to an exhibition on Czech and Slovak posters at the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. The article features images of some of the posters that were shown (largely from the collection of an American, Dana Bartelt, who has taught, and written on, graphic design and who currently lives and works in Prague as the resident coordinator of the NCState College of Design Prague Institute)--all of them excellent examples of 20th-century poster art. One of the images is of a theater poster, designed by Cestmír Pechr, whose work is also featured in the Winters Collection. Read Dvořák's piece at http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us:8080/ideasv61/dvorak.htm.
Posted by at 11:01 AM
January 1, 2006
Posters and the "Art" of Advertising Movies
What happens when a film producer has to advertise a movie that has no well-known actors in it? The first 2006 issue of the New York Times has an article that suggests that fine art increasingly is the remedy. It describes how producers of films in which there is no "name" actor or actress must rely on more creative ways of advertising their movies, since a photo of their lead performer on a movie poster won't sell their product if an unknown is starring in it. Thus, producers are drawing on the work of artists, such as the photographer Mark Kessell (some of whose work may be an acquired taste but is nonetheless intriguing), to help convey the gist of what their movies are about. This use of artists in the design of movie posters harks back to an era of poster art in Communist Poland, when--as remarked by Charles Evans, Jr., a producer of The Aviator--"poster art wasn't so much about commerce as about expression." From "Not Just Another Half-Dozen Pretty, Floating Faces," by Christian Moerk, in the 1 January 2006 NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/movies/01moer.html
Posted by at 4:30 PM