Vintage Polish Poster | Jan Maciej Karol Wścieklica | J. M. K. Hellcat

This author Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (commonly known as “Witkacy”) was born in 1885 in Warsaw and died by commiting suicide upon learning of the Red Army’s attack on Poland in 1939. One of his most famous plays was “Jan Maciej Karol Wścieklica” (“Jan Maciej Karol Hellcat”, or “J.M.K Madman”), written in 1922. The designer of this stunning poster Roman Cieslewicz (1930–1996) was a Polish graphic artist and photographer who studied at Kracow Academy of Fine Arts from 1949 to 1955. In 1963, he moved to France and became a citizen there in 1971. He worked as art director of Vogue and Elle magazines, and taught at the Ecole Superieure d´Arts Graphiques in Paris. Cieslewicz was a founder of the famous “Polish School of Posters”. He had over 100 solo exhibitions of prints, photomontage works, posters and photographs in many countries. His works are in the permanent collections of the National Museums in Poland, the Poster Museum in Wilanow, Poland, the New York Museum of Modern Art, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Musée d’Arts Décoratifs in Paris, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, US Library of Congress, Fagersta Stadsbibliotek in Stockholm, as well as in numerous private collections.