Designer · Poland · b. 1942
Mieczysław Wasilewski
Mieczysław Wasilewski (b. 1942) – Polish graphic artist, poster designer, graduate of Henryk Tomaszewski’s poster studio, professor at Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts.
About the designer
- Lifetime
- b. 1942
- Country
- Poland
Mieczysław Wasilewski was born in 1942 in Warsaw. Between 1960–1966, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he completed his diploma in Professor Henryk Tomaszewski’s poster studio. Between 1971–1985, he was Tomaszewski’s assistant, and subsequently ran the Graphic Design Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw; he became a professor in 1990. He also taught abroad, including at the University of Damascus (1981–1982), in Offenbach (1989), and in Rovaniemi and Helsinki (1991–1992). From 1971, he designed covers for the monthly magazine “Problemy” for over a decade.
Among his most frequently cited works is the anti-war poster “To be (or not to be?)” from 1975, in which the word “war” is shown as the shadow of “or”. In 1994, he won first prize in a competition for a poster marking the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. He also designed film posters, including for “Dirty Dancing” (1989) and “Girls from Lorraine” (1990), as well as a poster marking the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1993).
He received the gold medal of the International Poster Biennale in Warsaw (1976) and the silver medal of the same biennale (1994). His works are held, among others, in the collections of the Poster Museum in Wilanów, the National Museum in Poznań, Musée de l’Affiche in Paris and Toyama Poster Museum. In 2017, the Poster Museum in Wilanów presented the exhibition “Mieczysław Wasilewski. Posters etc.”.
