Long ago, before children had laptops, smartphones or even television, books were their first gateway to unknown worlds. It was through books that they discovered distant lands and galaxies, exotic animals, the work of doctors and firemen, the workings of airplanes or radars, the genius of Copernicus, Newton or Bach, Greek myths and Arab tales, urchins from Wilczków in Poland and Bullerby in Sweden, the stories of princes and kings, the history of the potato... and the list goes on (...)
In Poland in the 1960s and 70s the pictures were excellent! Those days, which have been dubbed the golden age of Polish illustration, saw the activity of dozens of very talented designers. The quality of Polish illustrative art came from an impetus, which arose after the death of Stalin across the whole Soviet bloc, especially in Poland. After years of terrible terror, including the suppression of art, artists had a huge desire to re-establish their lost dialogue with modernity, the avant-garde and the West, to regain their artistic freedom (...) these longings were also shared by illustrators who, over the course of the next two decades, created a magnificent visual setting for thousands of books.
