Tadeusz Trepkowski

The self-taught Polish poster artist Tadeusz Trepkowski attended the Municipal School of Decorative Arts in Warszawa for just a few months. Already in the 1930s, he was awarded with prizes for his poster designs in Poland and abroad. He did not belong to any artistic circle, however he used techniques employed by groups active in Warszawa.

From 1936, Trepkowski worked for the Institute of Social Affairs, for which he designed posters related to health and safety at work. During World War II, he interrupted his artistic activities and worked in a coal storage. In 1946-47, he was a correspondent for the Voice of the People at the Nuremberg Trials.

In 1951, Trepkowski was artistic director in the editorial office of the weekly newspaper Świat for a short time. He belonged to the first generation of artists of the Polish poster school. At the age of 40, he suddenly died of a heart attack.

Trepkowski designed political and social posters as well as posters for movies, sport and other events. His works were characterized by their special conciseness. He limited himself to expressive symbols and reduced texts, completely doing without people. In the last years of his life, he was criticized for deviating from the principles of socialist realism. He was also involved in organizing exhibitions and producing graphics for the press.

His most famous work is the anti-war poster Nie! from 1952, created on the occasion of the Vienna Congress of Nations for the Defense of Peace, now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. In 1954, Trepkowski was made a Knight of the Order of Polonia Restituta. Since 1955, a prize for young graphic artists bears his name.

Trepkowski designed his poster for the Art Exhibition of the Olympic Games in Helsinki as a gouache in 1952, which was used for the poster for the Sports Games of the Youth Festival in Warszawa in 1955.