Tag: andrzej klimowski

Non-Places Research: Artists: Andrzej Klimowski

Non-Places Research: Artists: Andrzej Klimowski

by turquoisecho ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Klimowski’s parents were Polish emigres. Klimowski studied at St. Martin’s School of Art, but unexpectedly returned to Poland in 1973-80. “There he specialised in poster design and made films in a political climate where graphic communication was not merely oil for the wheels of capitalism, but a way of maintaining hope of a better future than Communism could provide.”

He had success creating book jackets for writer Milan Kundera, whose work was supporessed after the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. His collages are surreally inspired, often featuring bodies with the head obscured. This has relevance to the suppression of intelligence under an oppressive regime.

A quick google search on this book suggests that the Author set out to make the point that neither love nor art offer an escape from political background and conflict. The burning fire might suggest the intrusion of politics into the love stories within the book.
I like the inclusion of both photography and enlarged sections of engravings here. I’d like to make some sort of surrealist-inspired work, and this jacket really appeals to me. The starkest tonal difference is in the hand holding the puppet-strings, and therefore draws the eye there. The composition is balanced, with darkest patches in the upper left and lower right.

How is this relevant to my current practice? The graphic design brief specifies that our book jacket will be a photographic collage, and Klimowski’s works are just that. They have a “cut-and stick” feel to them that corresponds to the workshop’s activity of physically creating a collage.

Source:

Powers, A. (2001) Front Cover – Great Cover and Book Jacket Design, Mitchell Beazley, UK.