Poster Design: Paweł Król

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CIRCUS
poster exhibition / Dydo Poster Collection
July - August 2025
Dydo Poster Gallery
Kraków, al. Focha 1

EVENT FB

Posters and advertisements promoting the circus have a history as long as this form of advertising exists. However, the artistic poster in Poland has flourished over the last few decades, with its peak in the 1960s and 1980s. In the early 1960s, the circus in Poland experienced a revival, combining authentic fairground and folk traditions with modern costume and set design, music, dance, and equipment. Modern training of acrobats and animal training also significantly influenced the advertising of circus performances. During this time, the circus management established a close collaboration with the artistic commission of the Art and Graphic Publishing House, allowing leading graphic artists to directly engage with the circus industry by attending performances. This fostered the creation of new, original ideas and marked a turning point in the history of the Polish circus poster. One of the pioneers of the circus poster was Stanisław Miedza-Tomaszewski. Artists such as Henryk Tomaszewski, Józef Mroszczak, Waldemar Świerzy, Wiktor Górka, Jan Młodożeniec, Hubert Hilscher, Roman Cieślewicz, and Tadeusz Jodłowski – the creators of the Polish School of Poster – began designing posters. From that moment, circus posters became not only street decorations but also adorned many interiors. Their popularity spread worldwide. The innovative nature of these posters, both in visual language and diverse poetics, ranging from lyricism to humor, visual jokes, and drama, reflected the components of circus performances. They contained many allusions, metaphors, and symbols. Subsequent generations of artists continued this poster tradition for many years, although the social acceptance of the circus had changed from the previous century. Nevertheless, circus posters still attract interest from collectors and interior decorators. Their editions, and reprints, reached tens of thousands of copies by the late 1980s. Our exhibition is a reminder of the heyday of this creative field and offers a different perspective on the circus.