Opening of &TD Theatre Poster Exhibition

I am pleased to let you know that on Friday, October 24th, at 7 pm, the HDD - Hrvatsko dizajnersko društvo / Croatian Designers Association Gallery opened the exhibition "DESIGN FOR THE &TD THEATRE 1964 – 1983: MIHAJLO ARSOVSKI, BORIS BUĆAN, ŽELJKO BORČIĆ & MIRKO ILIĆ". 9 of my &TD posters are included in the show. I am pleased that at this exhibition I am “hanging” with my idols Mihajlo Arsovski and Boris Bućan.

The curators of the exhibition, based on private collections and the collection of the Museum of Arts and Crafts, are Marko Golub and Dejan Krsic. 

'The exhibition provides an overview of one of the most exciting creative series in the history of Croatian graphic design, the dynamic continuity of graphic design for the Chamber Stage and the &TD Theatre, which were created, one after the other, by Mihajlo Arsovski, Boris Bućan, Željko Borčić and I from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s.' – Marko Golub and Dejan Kršić

&TD Theatre is a theatre in Zagreb, Croatia. It is regarded as one of the most important experimental Croatian theatres of the 20th century.

Photos by Buga Cvetanović.

 

Logos for The Auschwitz Institute

The Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot synagogue is the only surviving synagogue in the town of Oświęcim from before the Second World War. After the end of the war, the liberation of the nearby Auschwitz concentration camp, the nationalization of the building by the communist government during the Cold War, and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, in 1998, the Polish government repatriated the building to its Jewish community. The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation restored the building to a pre-war condition based on the memories of Holocaust survivors. The building was reopened in 2000, where it continues to serve as an active synagogue and a part of the Auschwitz Jewish Center’s permanent exhibition on the Jewish community in the town of Oświęcim.

In 2001, Auschwitz Jewish Center founder Fred Schwartz asked me to design a logo for the foundation. I created this broken Star of David, forming an “A” and a “J” out of the pieces that are undamaged. 

 

In 2006, Schwartz founded the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, an organization dedicated to training governments in long-term genocide prevention. I volunteered my time to create this logo for the Institute, showing rows of people, different from each other, yet standing together.

 

In 2018, I visited Auschwitz for the first time and saw my logo in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum’s education center. To this day, I still get goosebumps seeing the image on the grounds where such a tragedy took place.

 

In 2020, the Auschwitz Institute changed its name to the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities. It chose this new name to better reflect its mission of endeavoring to prevent any future mass atrocities across the globe. It operates from offices here in New York, where it partners with the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Bucharest, Romania; Kampala, Uganda; and Oświęcim, Poland. I was more than happy to tweak the logo to reflect the new name. 

 

Last week, I received this letter from the Institute. It moved me deeply, so I wanted to share it with you. I am honored that my art may contribute in any way to the critically necessary work of preventing these terrible crimes for generations to come.

 

&TD Theatre Poster Exhibition

I am pleased to let you know that on Friday, October 24th at 7 pm, the HDD Gallery will open the exhibition DESIGN FOR THE &TD THEATRE 1964 – 1983: MIHAJLO ARSOVSKI, BORIS BUĆAN, ŽELJKO BORČIĆ & MIRKO ILIĆ, which provides an overview of one of the most exciting creative series in the history of Croatian graphic design, the dynamic continuity of graphic design for the Chamber Stage and the &TD Theatre, which were created, one after the other, by Mihajlo Arsovski, Boris Bućan, Željko Borčić and I from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s.

 

The curators of the exhibition, based on private collections and the collection of the Museum of Arts and Crafts, are Marko Golub and Dejan Kršić.

 

&TD Theatre is a theatre in Zagreb, Croatia. It is regarded as one of the most important experimental Croatian theatres of the 20th century.

 

'The exhibition focuses on four authors who, one after the other, shaped the visual communication of the theatre within the Student Center within a little less than 20 years, constantly redefining what it means to make theatre posters, and along the way created some of the most important works in their careers. More than half of that period belongs, of course, to Mihajlo Arsovski, who not only shaped the most recognizable aspects of the identity of the &TD Theatre that will continue to resonate literally to this day, but in this engagement, he gradually defined his own authorial language in the sharpest terms, mostly in relation to the use of typography. His immediate successor, Boris Bućan, would find himself on the same task for an extremely short time, only about five months, but nothing he would do there was like anything else, and he would design some of his most radical posters there. And because of this radical approach, he would leave. The vacant position was then filled for two years by Željko Borčić, whose engagement at the &TD Theatre was roughly midway between his earlier conceptualist aspirations and his later institutionalization and transformation into one of the most successful designers for large companies. Directly after Borčić, the design of the same theatre was taken over by the then 22-year-old Mirko Ilić, for whom &TD was his first serious, continuous design engagement, a training ground for everything that can and should be done in a poster, and a prelude to a great international career.’ – Marko Golub and Dejan Kršić

I am pleased that at this exhibition I will be “rubbing shoulders” with my idols Mihajlo Arsovski and Boris Bućan

 

Below you can see some of my &TD Theatre posters from the exhibition.

 

 

 

"Hedda Gabler" Poster Wins Bronze

I am pleased to let you know that my poster design for the play Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen for the JDP-Yugoslav Drama Theatre in Belgrade, Serbia got the Bronze Award at the Biennial Uruguay Cartel International Festival.

You can read more about my Hedda Gabler posters here.

 

Commemoration of Anti-Fascist Struggle Day

On June 21st, to announce the 14th Festival of Miroslav Krleža, my poster and billboard designs were displayed throughout Zagreb, Croatia.

 

Miroslav Krleža (1893-1981) was a Croatian writer who is widely considered to be the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century. I created his portrait with his very characteristic hat, and because one of his most famous novels is titled Zastave (The Flags), I made his profile out of all incarnations of Croatian flags during his lifetime. 

 

The appearance of posters and billboards coincided with Anti-Fascist Struggle Day (Croatian: Dan antifašističke borbe), which is a public holiday in Croatia. It is observed on June 22nd to commemorate the formation of the First Sisak Partisan Detachment, a Communist-led guerrilla unit during World War II in Yugoslavia on June 22nd, 1941, and in general the uprising of the anti-fascist Croatian wing of the Yugoslav Partisans against the forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and their puppet state―Independent State of Croatia.

 

Unfortunately, to "commemorate" that day, someone vandalized one of the billboards—ripping it, scratching off Krleža's name and the red stars, and carving a swastika next to one of them. Thanks to the swift response of the organizers from Teatar poezije Zagreb, the billboard was replaced the following day.

 

A similar incident with the billboard occurred during last year's festival, though without the swastika.

 

 

 

"Miss 130" by Chiyoji Tomo

Recently acquired, this splash page from Miss 130, a series of soft-core porn manga by Chiyoji Tomo, published by Manga Cobra. I didn’t acquire this spread just because it’s quite well drawn, especially the woman’s feet, but it also has some other charming elements to it.

First is the graphical usage of the Japanese type. The large characters surrounding the scene are meaningless in Japanese and only serve to imitate the sound of people having sex. Second is the clever usage of horizontal lines to create motion/thrust in the image. Third is the strategically positioned splatters of white paint. And fourth is the presentation of hair, not just the woman’s hairstyle, but particularly the whimsical presentation of hair on the man’s body. 

Hair on a man doesn’t appear very often on comic heroes unless they are villains. One of the rare, hairy comic heroes was Rip Kirby. 

 

"Daily Heller" Rijeka

I am pleased to let you know that on October 2nd, Steven Heller, in his prestigious Print Magazine blog “Daily Heller” wrote about a show of my work in Rijeka, Croatia.

'The exhibition “represents a fresh reading of the oeuvre of the prominent artist,” say curators Marko Golub and Sabina Salaman in the show’s bilingual catalog, noting that it “connects in intriguing ways the works of graphic design, illustration and comics created between the late 1970s and the present day. … The thread running through the thematic units and numerous thematic chapters is aimed at the idea of time that is manifested in many of the artist’s work in a series of different forms, perspectives and possible interpretations.”’ – Steven Heller

Here you can read more about the show and download a complete bilingual PDF of the catalog.

 

University of Delaware Lecture and Reception

I am pleased to let you know that this past Monday, September 29, I visited the University of Delaware to share my creative process in a lecture titled Artist Talk: “Poster is Drama.” The talk at Willard Hall was followed by a closing reception in the Taylor Hall Gallery. Students, designers, theater-goers, and the wider community were invited to experience how a single image can connect people, open conversations, and transform the way we see performance.

You can see more photos of the show here.