Vintage Polish Poster | Romuald Tesarowicz Nabucco | Waldemar Swierzy

Nabucco, short for “Nebuchadnezzar”, is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi. Under its original name of Nabucodonosor, the opera was first performed at La Scala in Milan in 1842. Nabucco is the opera that is considered to have permanently established Verdi’s reputation as a composer. The opera follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the  Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. The historical events are used as background for a romantic and political plot. The artist for this poster is Waldemar Swierzy, born in Poland in 1931. He graduated from the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts in 1952. Subsequently he was Professor at the University of Fine Arts in Poznan from 1965 and Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw from 1994. In 1992 the government of Poland issued a postage stamp to honor one of his Cyrk (Circus) posters, ‘Clown with Derby’. Swierzy is one of the Polish School of Posters’ most prolific artists, having created over 2500 posters. He employed unusual concepts with a variety of techniques, frequently mirroring Polish social history from 1950s through 1980s, with a myriad of styles: folk art from the 50s, pop art from the 60s, portraits from the 70s, and TV images from the 80s. In addition, his Jazz Greats series of famous American jazz personalities became so well known that he reissued them in his later years as signed lithographs. The series includes Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles and Charlie Parker, among others. He passed away in 2013.