Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Stanislav Duda

Animation / Applied Arts / Book Illustration / Graphic Art

 

 

• b. 2nd July 1921, Ostrava, Czech Republic ¹
• 2008, Czech Republic

Education:

• 1941 – 1947, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (Antonín Strnadel)

Art groups:

• Bilance (also Jaroslav Fišer) ²

Exhibitions (selected):

• 1954 – 1958 Group exhibitions, Bilance
• 1956 – Exhibitions of Graphic Artists from Czechoslovakia. Poznan, Moscow, Warszaw ³
• 1958 – EXPO. Brussels, Belgium
• 1965 – Plakate aus der Tschechoslowakei. Munich, West Germany ⁴
• 1959 – 1969 Ontario, Wien, Hamburg, Karlovy Vary, Bochum, Koln, Tolentino, London
• 1967 – Contemporary Czechoslovak Poster. Olomouc, Czech Republic
• 1964/1970/1972/1976/1980 – Brno Biennials, Czech Republic

Awards (selected):

• 1964 − Applied Arts Prize. 1st Biennials of Czechoslovak Poster and Applied Arts. Brno, Czech Republic
• 1968 – Prize for Installation. XVI. Triennale, Milano, Italy ⁵
• 1985 – Jiří Trnka Prize for animation Omalovánky / Colouring Books. Czech Republic
• 1986 − 1st Prize for animation. Chicago Film Festival, USA

Awarded posters:

• 1964 – Honourable mention for Harold Lloyd in his best Comedies movie poster (bellow). International Film Festival, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic ⁶
• 1965 − 1st Prize for The Haunted Castle / Strašidla ze Spessartu movie poster. Filmplakat Wien, Austria
• 1984 – Silver Hugo for Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid movie poster. Chicago Film Festival, USA

 

 

Welcome to the humorous world of Stanislav Duda, possibly one of the longest lasting poster designer Czechoslovakia had on offer. His poster activities are dating to late 40s, where he gained several awards for his commercial poster designs. ⁷  Stanislav Duda begins to work professionally right after his graduation as graphic designer in Centrotex company (import / export of mostly textile products) where he stayed until 1953. From then onwards he works on his own as freelancer. He takes part in several group exhibitions representing graphic art from Czechoslovakia and also participates on International Exposition in Brussels (EXPO 58), where Czechoslovakia won prize for the best pavilion.

 

By the beginning of 1960s when Stanislav Duda started designing movie posters he was already well established graphic artist. Not sure if it was just by mere coincidence or because of his personal character, but it seems that majority of his 1960s movie posters were designed mostly for grotesque comedy (most of the posters shown in the article). Parallel to his illustrated caricatures that could be seen in several popular periodicals or art magazines, one can suggest that circumstances were working in his favour.

 

 

It is interesting to observe artist’s development through out his career. Stanislav Duda remained faithful to drawing all the way to mid 1980s. Apart of occasional use of very simple collage (Bewitched Love, 1969 (bellow) / Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, 1985) or his phenomenal movie poster for Francois Truffaut’s Day for Night (great example of his graphical abilities) he was focused mainly on illustration and experimented a lot with fonts and colour. Eventually he also takes control over typography and masters everything in very unique almost childish quality of naive artist as can be seen in his later poster designs.

 

 

Stanislav Duda was author of several animated films and illustrated a good number of books for both children and adults. His work brought him a world recognition in pretty much everything he has touched. He has designed around thirty movie posters all with genuine signature and obtained some important movie poster awards.

Note: this showcase is part of our ongoing article Film posters / Made in Czechoslovakia. The story of film posters.

Many other magnificent posters by Stanislav Duda can be observed in our movie poster archive.

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Resources:

Literature:

• II. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno ’66, Medzinárodní Výstava Knižní Grafiky a Ilustrace, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 2nd Biennale of Graphic Design Brno ’66, The International Exhibition of Book Graphics and Illustrations, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1966
• 3.5. IV. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1970, Medzinárodní Přehlídka Plakátu a Propagační Grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 4th Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 1970, The International Exhibition of Poster and Promotional Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1970 (p.41)
• V. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1972, Medzinárodní Výstava Ilustrace a Knižní Grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 5th Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 1972, The International Exhibition of Illustrations and Book Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1972
• VII. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1976, Mezinárodní výstava ilustrace a knižní grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 7th Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 1976, The International Exhibition of Illustrations and Book Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1976
• IX. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1980, Medzinárodní Výstava Ilustrace a Knižní Grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 9th Biennale of Graphic Design 1980, The International Exhibition of Illustrations and Book Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1980
• 6.Současná světová grafika, Deset brněnských bienále / The World Graphic Design at the Ten Brno Biennials, Jiří Hlušička. Odeon, Praha, 1985 (p.272)
• 7. 1948, 1949, 1955 – 1st, 2nd & 3rd Prize for commercial poster design. IV. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1970, Medzinárodní Přehlídka Plakátu a Propagační Grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 4th Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 1970, The International Exhibition of Poster and Promotional Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1970 (p.41)
• 4. Exhibition Catalogue: Plakate aus der Tschechoslowakei / Posters from the Czechoslovakia. Münchner Stadstmuseum, Munich, West Germany, 16.2 − 20.3. 1965. Texts: Alena Adlerová & Johanna von Herzogenberg.

Online:

• 1. abArt / Stanislav Duda / Most of the biographical details are coming from AbArt’s archive unless otherwise referred.
• 2.  AbArt  / Group of Artists and Graphic Designers established in Prague between 1957 − 1968. Main activities were exhibitions of group members in Czechoslovakia and abroad.
• Article about exhibition Plakate aus der Tschechoslowakei / Posters from the Czechoslovakia, Munich, West Germany (1965) was printed in Gebrauchsgraphik Magazine, January/1965 and is available thanks to International Advertising & Design DataBase (pages 46-60).
• Centrotex / cs.wikipedia.org

Images used:

• Harold Lloyd in His Best Comedies, 1963 / The King of Kings, 1963. Exhibition Catalogue: Plakate aus der Tschechoslowakei / Posters from the Czechoslovakia. Münchner Stadstmuseum, Munich, West Germany, 16.2 − 20.3. 1965. Texts: Alena Adlerová & Johanna von Herzogenberg
• When Comedy Was King / Stanislav Duda, 1965.Exhibition Catalogue: IV. Bienále Užité Grafiky Brno 1970, Medzinárodní Přehlídka Plakátu a Propagační Grafiky, Moravská Galerie v Brně. / 4th Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 1970, The International Exhibition of Poster and Promotional Graphics, Moravian Gallery Brno, 1970 (p. 145)

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Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Bedřich Dlouhý

Fine Art / Graphic Design / Typography

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• b. 2nd August 1932, Plzeň (Pilsen), Czech Republic

Education / Pedagogue:

• 1949 − 1952, Specialised Ceramics school in Prague ¹
• 1953 − 1959, Academy of Fine Arts, Prague (Karel Souček, Miroslav Hollý)
• 1990 – 1995, taught as professor at Academy of Fine Arts, Prague

Exhibitions / Awards:

• up to 70s artist exhibited mostly in group shows across the Europe and Czechoslovakia
• IV. Biennale de Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1965 (Awarded)

Art Groups:

• Palette of Homeland (unofficial trans.) / Paleta vlasti (Hockey team consisting of several of artist’s friends)
• Šmídrové (from 1954)
• Confrontation / Konfrontace (from 1961, also Jiří Balcar)
• Retarded / Zaostalí (from 1987)

Film posters created: 23 (1962-1971) ²

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[quote]”It may sound slightly disrespectful, but I am aware that I have a huge wide inventiveness and it makes and justifies me to take interest in many sectors of the art form.” ³[/quote]

We are somewhere in mid fifties, in times of the most absurd terror upon democracy, constant greyness (Stalin’s monument in Prague and similar monsters are being raised across the Czechoslovakia) and bleak vision of existence. At the Academy of Fine Art in Prague the group of three interesting characters are meeting up. In the following words we will try to get closer to one of them.

[quote]”I started out as no one in that field and I was getting jobs for pretty inconsequential films from Romania, Bulgaria and Russia. They were productions of a third or second category. Because of the impressive quality of my work, film poster committee and ÚPF representatives (Formal state film distribution 1957 – 1991) were constantly adding to a momentum. It was reflected in good quality commissions for example for Fellini’s or Visconti’s magnum opus. I had to earn it.” ⁴[/quote]

Bedřich Dlouhý was not such a tyro/novice at the beginning of his poster designing career as he explains in the quote above. By the time he started to design movie posters (1962) his portfolio contained already good body of art work, some important exhibitions and possibly something extra to it. To his future colleagues he must have been known as someone incredibly talented, the man without hesitation and very likely also without compromise.

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Neglecting the art

Among Bedřich Dlouhý’s best early pieces was exhibiting with art group Šmídrové. Their first exhibition in 1954 called Malmuzherziáda (varieté of painting, music and act as we understand) was made in the hardest times of Stalinist propaganda and Social Realism. Jan Koblasa (Czech artist and the member of the group) in the documentary made for Czech Television demonstrates the climate of late fifties as “very dark and grey”. Days in art school, as days among communist collaborators (“recommended working class was gaining high school diplomas to get legal access to Universities). Loneliness among them was unbearable.” ⁵ No wonder that the three of them had met under such a circumstances. The group itself had very playful character with Neo Dadaist expression, hockey team and brass band.(Traditional folk music was not in favour of communist propaganda either, they had their own songs full of ridiculous slogans.)

[quote]“We loathed to look as an artists. We loathed to do things as an artists. We played hockey as part of our manifest Šmídrové. It may sound unbelievable, but the main thing was not to be an artist.” ⁶[/quote]

After their first collaborative exhibition the group was officially established. Show or rather happening in 1957 called “Exhibition for one day” brought in too much controversy. Event had to be cancelled in duration, but it took place elsewhere the following day. On the day one Václav Havel (Czech writer, poet, ex-president) was giving the speech and on the second day he was already taking part with good number of other artists and musicians. Bedřich Dlouhý’s discharge from the Academy followed and lasted for a while.

Poster days and …

As for the film poster Bedřich Dlouhý was testing the new medium so intensely as anything else. His posters might appear visually settled and designed in quite minimalist style. In our examples even his typography might look very basic. Less is more, but not for Bedřich Dlouhý’s movie posters. They are full of hidden symbols and impressions even when they seem so simple.

Please come closer and let’s take a look at his The Fall of Berlin movie poster for instance. Fairly suggestive photograph of burning German capital is taking over the larger part of the poster. Pure catastrophe straight into ones face and quite rightly in monochrome. Message is very simple, anyone could guess what the movie poster offers. Bedřich Dlouhý does not want you to only see the movie but he also wants you to use the rest of your senses.

[quote]”I enjoyed improvising incredibly.” ⁷[/quote]

He takes your attention a bit further by exploring the large circle in the middle of the rich red bottom half of the poster. Red colour could represent the tons of blood and it is possibly also used to say big STOP. Almost like the red colour on traffic light advising one to stop, only the circle here is empty. Negating reality and pointing out that people will never learn. Or take the circle together with rectangularly shaped photograph. Two objects want to look little something like exclamation mark and set the message to following? STOP THIS! ? Similarly to the inner part of the circle that tells how it could all end up if we do not stop the wars. His movie poster for Hiroshima Mon Amour was designed in absolutely different style, but the poster also suggests close catastrophe.

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There are not only serious movie posters author has designed, he does not omit humour and irony (posters designed for The Pink Panther / Blake Edwards in 1966 or In the Woods / Akira Kurosawa in 1970 ) ⁸ when necessary. He does not use any particular style either, but instead he approaches each individual poster very differently. The one connecting link we have found is that Bedřich Dlouhý’s curiosity does not like to leave things as they are. He wants to get right into to the core of his subject by bringing out the deepest details and he starts from there. He slips between the most complicated expressive forms (techniques frequently used in his paintings) ⁹ to the most simple designs masterly. Visual illusion and yet with fantastically clear almost microscopic explanation.

Even thought Bedřich Dlouhý created some of the most iconic movie posters of the 60s, his unconventional approach to art form did not meet with the official agenda of the following decade. Similarly to many other artists in the beginning of the 70s he was forced to stop exhibiting and discontinued with designing movie posters.

Note: this showcase is part of our ongoing article Film posters / Made in Czechoslovakia. The story of film posters.

Available posters designed by the artist.

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Resources:

Literature:

• Collective authors: Czech film posters of 20th century / The Moravian Gallery in Brno, Exlibris Prague, 2004.
• 2. Flashback / Czech and Slovak Film Posters 1959-1989, ed. Libor Gronský, Marek Perůtka, Michal Soukup, Olomouc Museum of Art, 2004. (p.49). 25 movie posters to our knowledge.
• Tomáš Vlček: Současný Plakát / Contemporary Poster, Odeon, Prague, 1976.
• Československý Plakát / Czechoslovak Poster, exhibition catalogue, Olomouc (Czech Republic), 1967. One of the most important poster exhibition in the history of Czechoslovak poster design. We wish to return back to catalogue and give it a full blog post once we are ready.

Online:

• 1. abArt / Bedřich Dlouhý / see for the full list of exhibitions. abArt takes always first place and star when it comes to research.
• 3. / 4. Czech Radio Archive / offers few of his interviews
• 5. / 6. / 7. Fenomém Underground / Underground Phenomenon (unofficial title), Collective authors, 2012. Documentary made for Czech Television. 52 min.
•  8. Filmový plakát (Bedřich Dlouhý) / excellent archive of Czechoslovak poster art

Additional research:

• for Pinterest users, some posters are available to see in our board
• 9. Museum Montanelli, Prague / Return of the King, exhibition 2015

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Film posters in history. Sixties poster designs.

Poster Designer / Josef Duchoň

Book Illustration / Fine Art / Graphic Design / Typography

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• b. 17th January 1929, Hostěradice (Prague-West), Czech Republic

Education:

• 1945 − 1949, State Graphic School, Prague (Richard Lander)
• 1949 − 1955, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, Prague (Karel Svolinský)

Art Groups:

• Association of Czech Graphic Artists Hollar / Sdružení českých umělců grafiků Hollar (1957)
• May 57 / Máj 57 (1964)

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Remember the day when we were unfolding our first large size movie poster. There was quite an excitement about the whole thing. Firstly it was about the size of a poster. All of our movie posters were in A3 size until then and we were astonished by the remarkable change in dimensions. Almost three times larger in size, movie poster offered much clearer detail and we had impression that printing was handled with slightly extra care. For common reason as we had later found out, A1 posters were bit more representative, they were used occasionally for poster exhibitions. Our second astonishment was the visual content.

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Josef Duchoň’s lovingly puzzled collage for children’s adventurous movie set in the jungle (Black Mountain, 1972) was tenderly looking at us. What a joy! His movie posters have become one of our most favourite ever since. As we are describing the temperature, we could also mention, that we have very similar feelings towards Ever Alexander Půček‘s children’s posters.

Fascination of Josef Duchoň with children’s fantasy is in the right place and it was frequently reflected in his book illustrations. From 1959 he was co-working for the State publisher of children book as an illustrator. Early 1960s brought Josef Duchoň also to movie poster design. He created over two dozens of exceptionally impressive movie posters in period of almost 20 years¹.

His work is extremely explosive, but not in a destructive way. On the other hand, Josef Duchoň is using the mixture of several artistic methods to reach viewer’s sensation. As a surreal artist his choice of collage technique is natural. Wonderful variation of live pastel colours achieved by the use of elegantly shaped and carefully placed woodcuts and his manipulation with objects is masterful. Thanks to monochrome cut outs and neat typography his movie posters are gaining quite significant depth and very vibrant character.

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Josef Duchoň started exhibiting as a member of Association of Czech Graphic Artists Hollar in mid 1950s². (Important art group established in Prague, 1917.) Among 161³ Czech leading artists and graphic designers one can find other interesting poster artists such as Jiří Balcar, Adolf Born, Jan Kubíček, Jiří Šalamoun or Jaroslav Sůra to name few.

His first solo exhibition is dated to 1960. Liberal Czechoslovakia allowed Josef Duchoň to exhibit work also internationally. He took part in Biennale of Young Artists / Paris (France, 1963), Intergrafik / Berlin (Germany, 1965), Myth of the XXth Century / Coventry (UK, 1967) or in exhibition of Czech graphic artists in Oregon (USA, 1967). It seems that 1970s political changes stopped his exhibition activities for some time. There was no place for surreal, or any sort of abstraction in uniformed Czechoslovakia. However children’s publications were not censored, anything was possible in there and movie posters just very mildly⁴. Josef Duchoň remained faithful to a fantasy.

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Note: this showcase is part of our ongoing article Film posters / Made in Czechoslovakia. The story of film posters.

Please see other fascinating posters designed by the artist.

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Resources:

Literature:

• 1. Collective authors: Czech film posters of 20th century / The Moravian Gallery in Brno, Exlibris Prague, 2004. Josef Duchoň’s movie poster appears in year 1964 in their chronological catalogue. Our poster archive dates his movie poster activity up to 1981.

Online:

• 2. abArt / Josef Duchoň / Big thanks to abArt for their research on invisible.
• 3. cs.Wikipedia.org / Association of Czech Graphic Artists Hollar
• Prostor / Extensive list of artist’s exhibitions.
• 4. Read more about censorship in our article about anonymous artists.

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