Mroszczak studied at the National School of Decorative Arts and Artistic Crafts in Cracow in 1930 to 1934 and at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna in 1934 to 1937 prior to graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In 1937, he co-founded the Free School of Painting and Drawing in Katowice. Under the Nazi occupation, he stayed in Nowy Targ, teaching drawing and advertising at the local Trade School. After the war, he returned to Katowice to revive the fine arts movement and teach at the local high school which opened in 1947 as a branch of the National Higher School of Fine Arts in Wroclaw. In 1952 he moved to Warsaw and was appointed Head of Chair of Applied Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts. He was made Professor in 1956 and from 1971 was the Dean of the Academy’s Graphic Arts Faculty, an appointment he was to hold for many years.
A dedicated organiser, Mroszczak was a member of the Presidium of the Design Council at the Council of Ministers’ Office and, from 1964 to 1967, a member of the Council of Culture and Higher Artistic Education at the Ministry of Culture and Arts. He was also the Polish Chairman of the Alliance Graphique International and the Deputy Chairman of the International Council of Graphic Design Association. He lectured in Darmstadt, Dusseldorf, Ulm, Vienna, Berlin, Parma, Linz, Cologne and Brussels, and developed the designs of a number of trade fairs, notably in Paris, Helsinki, Stockholm, Vienna, Barcelona, Turin and Moscow, and of Polish art exhibitions in London, Berlin and Brussels.
He published books on Polish posters (Polnische Plakat Kunst / Polska sztuka plakatu, 1963), was an initiator and co-founder of the world’s first Poster Museum in Wilanow and the originator and founder of the International Poster Biennial in Warsaw. He also co-established the periodical Projekt.
His awards include a Gold Medal at the 1965 International Exhibition of Editorial Art in Leipzig, a prize at the 1966 International Graphic Art Biennial and the Association of Swiss Graphic Artists Prisma Award in 1968.
Mroszczak was not only a leading Polish poster artist, but was also one of the fathers of the world fame of Polish posters, recognised as a top representative of the Polish school of posters alongside Tadeusz Trepkowski, Henryk Tomaszewski and Jan Lenica. While mainly a visual artist, he was also an organiser of artistic life. His promotion of the poster art was instrumental in it becoming known and valued by large numbers of the public.
Mroszczak successfully and innovatively combined the key ingredients of the poster: maximum information conveyed with minimum means and a persuasive pictorial aspect. His posters are more painting-like than those of most Polish artists; he covered large areas with unrestricted spots of colour to achieve a decorative effect. He ensured a balance between the communicative and visual aspects of his posters, the communicative side never becoming a mere pretext for the visual side, the visual side never leading an existence of its own.
His poster debut took place in 1933. Like many of his early posters (for instance the one to mark the eighth anniversary of the Polish People’s Republic), the first one used a processed photograph. Naturally enough, Mroszczak’s 1950s posters are realistic. Some, like Pokój / Peace, showing a girl standing in front of the school blackboard on which the word ‘peace’ has been written, are propaganda works. Some have the charm of children’s hand-made greeting cards, like his 1954 poster celebrating the restitution of Poland on 22nd July 1944 (Kwiaty Polski Ludowej /The Flowers of People’s Poland), his first work to use a floral motif that was subsequently to become a hallmark of his art.
Folksiness, the most pronounced characteristics of Mroszczak’s posters, was not an aesthetic convention adopted with premeditation, but something that suited his personality and temper. His posters, filled with vivid spots of green and red, blue and yellow, bring to mind folk glass paintings and naive art.
Some of Mroszczak’s film and theatre posters resemble children’s torn-paper collages (Karuzela neapolitanska / Carosello Napoletano, 1957; Student zebrak / The Beggar Student, 1961; Ptasznik z Tyrolu / the Birdman from Tirol, 1963). Others are humorous (Prywatne życie Henryka VIII / The Private Life of Henry VIII, 1955). His painting-like works, emanating vitality and cheerful humour, sometimes exist side by side with their dramatic and dignified counterparts – like the Boris Godunov 1955 film and 1959 opera posters.
In the 1960s, Mroszczak introduced other techniques to his posters, notably photographed textiles and lace (Don Carlos, 1963).
A separate group of posters are Mroszczak’s exhibition and advertising works in which the focus is on the sign, information and typography, the latter an invariable strength of his (Słowo i obraz / Word and Picture, 1971, Cepelia – kilim / Folk Art Trading House: A Kilim Carpet, 1972).
Alongside being an accomplished poster artist, Mroszczak was also an outstanding exhibitor, organizer and teacher. In collaboration with noted architects and designers, he developed designer layouts of exhibitions, promoted the Polish poster abroad, wrote one of the most comprehensive studies on the Polish poster, organized a number of exhibitions of Polish posters and lectured on them throughout Europe. He was the main initiator of the world’s first Poster Museum in Wilanów which opened in 1968.
He was involved in teaching for over thirty years, turning a number of his Studio students into excellent and mature poster artists. His last years were devoted to packaging designs commissioned by businesses. His students collaborated with manufacturing plants, developing design prototypes during coursework.
He exhibited his works in Paris, Milan, Stockholm, Barcelona, Vienna, Essen, London, Berlin, Caracas and elsewhere.
Author: Ewa Gorządek, Centre for Contemporary Art at Ujazdowski Castle, May 2006