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You may want to learn more about The Polish Poster School right now
When I was a kid, back when Americans fought against fascism, my family would go to a place near my house called The Nut Tree. If you are also from the Bay Area, you probably went to The Nut Tree often too.
The Nut Tree was a place off Interstate 80 where you could stop for a meal, ride a railroad to a small-plane airport, play in a playground influenced by Scandinavian design, and shop in the two gift shops for baked goods and toys from all over the world. If you were a kid, it was pretty magical.
The restaurant, like the playground, was influenced by Scandinavian design. The dining room walls were covered in circus posters from the Polish Poster School. Since then, I have been obsessed with the Polish Poster School, particularly the circus posters.
The Polish Poster School emerged in the aftermath of World War II and the Soviet rule that followed in what was then the Polish People’s Republic, which controlled the arts. There were strict rules against “the fine arts” until the death in 1953 of Joseph Stalin, who favored Socialist Realism in all state-sanctioned art.
In the Polish People’s Republic, posters were one of the few artistic outlets that could be practiced in public and were used by the Communist regime as morale boosters. The Communist regime…
