Vintage Polish Posters | Jazz on the Odra River | Jan Sawka

Poland is famous for its music festivals, and “Jazz Nad Odra” (Jazz on the Odra River) is one of the oldest, most popular and largest annual events in Wrocław, Poland. Jazz nad Odrą spans over five days of fantastic concerts and night jam sessions. It´s the oldest jazz competition in the country for instrumentalists and singers under the age of 35. Jazz nad Odrą has been held since 1964. Throughout its history, the festival’s stage has hosted many jazz legends, such as American saxophonists Branford Marsali and Chris Potter, Swedish bassist Lars Danielsson., and Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan. The artist for this piece, Jan Sawka, who passed in 2012, possessed two master´s degrees in art. By his late 20s, Sawka was a star of the famed Polish School of Posters and a leading artist of the counter-culture. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he became known in Poland for the posters and stage sets that he designed for avant-garde theater groups. He largely was able to avoid trouble with censors until his work began to be noticed by foreign art critics, who commented on the hidden anti-authoritarian elements in his art. in 1977, he moved to New York, USA. His awards have included the 1975 Oscar de la Peinture in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France for painting and the Gold Medal at the 1978 Warsaw Poster Biennial.