Stanisław Kuczborski (1881–1911), painter, draughtsman and cartoonist, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow and, after that, in Paris. He came from an artistic family – his mother was the sister of Aleksander and Maksymilian Gierymski. Kuczborski is one of the authors of the works gathered in Teka Melpomeny – a collection of lithographs published in 1904 in Cracow under the supervision of Stanisław Szreniawa-Rzecki and printed in Aureliusz Pruszyński's lithographic printing house. Teka included caricatures of Cracow's actors, immortalized in their distinctive roles. The artist is also known to be the co-creator of the famous Zielony Balonik [Little Green Balloon] cabaret, started in a cafe called Jama Michalikowa, founded by Jan Apolinary Michalik – the initiator of Teka Melpomeny. His professional activity also included graphic design and collaboration with the Liberum Veto Magazine, where he published his drawings.
The showcased work announces a lecture by Artur Górski, Mickiewicz – dead and alive, organized by the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Górski (1870–1959), a writer and literary critic, in 1898 published a series of articles titled Młoda Polska [Young Poland] in the Cracow-based daily newspaper Życie, due to which the name for a new period in visual arts and literature was adopted.
The poster by Kuczborski, monochromatic and minimalistic in terms of the means used, is a portrait of Mickiewicz with oak branches and leaves in the background – the oak being a tree symbolic to perseverance and power of spirit – enclosed in a rectangular frame. The poet is portrayed in an en trois quarts view with semi-closed eyes and drawn with casual sketch line. The lower part of the poster's composition contains information about the event, formatted in a block-like shape – perfectly balanced with the graphic.
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