Józef Mroszczak

Józef Mroszczak (May 11, 1910 in Nowy Targ, Poland - September 19, 1975, in Warsaw, Poland) was a Polish graphic designer and representative of the Polish School of Posters.[1]

Education

After graduating from high school in his hometown in 1928, he started his studies at Cracow’s School of Decorative Arts and Art Industry (1930–33), and then at the Kunstgewerbeschule and the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchtanstalt in Vienna’s Academy of Graphic Arts (1934–37).

Career

When he completed his higher education he settled in Katowice, there he taught at the city’s Trade High School from 1936 to 1937. Mroszczak was one of the founders of Katowice’s Free School of Painting and Drawing, where he ran a graphic arts studio in the years 1937-39, at the same time conducting courses at the Institute of Commercial Education in Chorzów. From 1938, he lectured on the theory of advertising at the College of Administration and Social Studies in Katowice. During the German occupation he taught courses on drawing and lettering at the Trade High School in Zakopane and at the Nowy Targ School of Economics. Just after the end of World War II, Mroszczak organized much of the artistic life throughout Silesia, later on he co-founded and assumed the chairmanship of the regional office of the Polish Artists’ Association (ZPAP). From 1947 to 1953 he lectured at the Katowice School of Art, which was later transformed into the Second Faculty of Graphic Art at Cracow’s Academy of Fine Arts. In addition, his skills were employed in designing the Polish coal industry stands at various international fairs.

Mroszczak moved to Warsaw in 1952 and obtained the post of creative director at the publishing house Wydawnictwo Artystyczno-Graficzne (1952–56) and a lectureship at the city’s Academy of Fine Arts.[2] He was Chair of Graphic Design from 1957 to 1960, and Dean of the School of Graphic Arts from 1968 to 1971. He became an Associate Professor in 1956 and a Full Professor in 1971.

Mroszczak also lectured at numerous foreign universities, such as the Akademie für Bildende Kunst in Berlin-Weissensee (1958) and Hochschule der Künste in West Berlin (1964). In 1963 he lectured at Vienna’s Akademie für Angewandte Kunst, and in 1964 he was invited to give a series of lectures at the Folkwangeschule in Essen, a presentation at the Fachbereich Architektur Technische Universität Darmstadt, and he conducted a seminar at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm. In 1965 he lectured at the Linz Kunstschule, and in 1966 he participated in a conference for visual communication organized at the German Universität zu Köln. He was invited to conduct a course for graphic designers at the Centre for Creative Enterprise near Moscow in 1968. He lectured at the German Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster and at the Association of Russian Artists in Moscow, and lectured on teaching graphic design in Vienna and Linz in 1974.

Mroszczak co-founded the periodical Projekt (Design) and was its editor from 1956 till 1966. He was Vice Chairman of ZPAP’s Chief Artistic Committee, and was co-founder and Chairman of the Warsaw International Poster Biennial Organizational Committee from 1966[2] to his death in 1975. He was a member of the Committee for Packaging, the Council for Culture and Artistic Higher Education at the Art and Culture Ministry, and the Fine Arts Council. He served as Chairman of the Artistic Committee of the Wilanów Poster Museum, and was both Presidium Member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Industrial Aesthetics and Design, and Chairman of the Fine Arts Section of the State Awards Committee.

His interests included poster design, the art of exhibition, and functional graphic design. He designed pavilions at various international expositions and fairs, including Poznań, Paris, Milan, Barcelona, Leipzig, Stockholm, Helsinki, Izmir, Bari, Brussels, and Vienna. He was Chief Designer of the Polish Industry Exhibition in Moscow in 1959; and in 1961 he co-designed the Polish pavilion at the international work safety exposition “Italia ‘61” in Turin.

Mroszczak became a member of AGI in 1950 and served as Chairman of the organization’s Polish Section from 1966 to 1974. In 1968-70, he was Vice Chairman of ICOGRADA. He was also an honorary member of the Dutch Graphic Artists Association (GVN) and of the Academia Nazionale de Belli Arte in Parma.

Józef Mroszczak died on September 19, 1975, in Warsaw.

Distinctions

Individual expositions

Prizes and awards

PRL” (“Polish Artistic Endeavour after 15 years of the People’s Republic of Poland”), Warsaw

(Auschwitz never again project)

(Work, Happiness, Peace, Freedom, Progress)

Texts and publications by Józef Mroszczak

References

  1. ↑ Gorządek, Ewa. "Józef Mroszczak". Culture.pl. Adam Mickiewicz Institute. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
  2. 1 2 Aulich, James; Marta Sylvestrová (1999). Political Posters in Central and Eastern Europe, 1945-95: Signs of the Times. Manchester University Press. pp. 15, 27. ISBN 9780719054198.
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