Jan Lenica’s political caricatures from the 1950 book Polska Karykatura Polityczna (Polish Political Caricature):
Polska Karykatura Polityczna consists of about a hundred loose pages featuring one or two images each (printed one side only, mostly two-color). It comes in a folder and an accompanying booklet with an essay in Polish, Russian, French, and English. In addition to these twelve images by Lenica (justly famous for his film posters), the book features work by Baro, J. Zaruba (a ton by him), E. Lipinski, Z. Lengren, Z. Kiulin, Ha-Ga, M. Berezowska, K. Baraniecki, M. Piotrowski, I. Witz, and many others. I hope to feature more soon.
A selection from the booklet (in rough English):
What else, if not the symbol of all evil threatening man, was the Dragon of the popular fairy-tales? So long as he did not burst from his own greediness or the courage of those who challenged him, the Dragon terrorized countries and cities alike. Those legendary dragons surely disliked two things — to be beaten and to be laughed at. We are dealing in a similar way with our XXth century dragon, breathing not fire and brimstone, but lies, atomic and hydrogen bombs, bacteria and Colorado beetles, terror, death, and air-raids on defenceless: we belabour them with the strength of the peace-front — and we laugh at them!
A legend surrounding the origins of our ancient Krakow records such a dragon, who sat under the Wawel Hill spreading terror and destruction, until a certain brace Krak killed him — and in that way the city got its name. The people surely laughed mightily, when Krak accomplished the deed. We, today, can look ahead: we laugh defiantly at our enemies and smile into our future, which we are building.
Previously:
- Thirty Book Covers from Poland
- The Wonderful Wizards of Lodz: Kids’ Books from Poland, part 1
- The Wonderful Wizards of Lodz: Kids’ Books from Poland, part 2
