Rafał Olbinski, MIDSUMMER MARRIAGE (Summer Marriage)

65 x 50.7cm - inking, paper glued on foam

signed on lead l.d.: 205 /350, p.d.: Olbinski

Rafał Olbinski (Kielce 1945, lives in Warsaw) - studied at the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology, where he received his diploma in 1969. From his student years he was involved in applied graphics and posters. He participated in many Polish and international exhibitions related to graphics and posters. He was the author of the graphic design of the magazine "Jazz Forum". In 1981, he left Poland and settled in New York where he cantinated his poster art, and also took up painting, press drawing and illustration. He debuted in 1981 with a cover for Psychology Today magazine. He has been published in magazines such as Newsweek, Time, Business Week, The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, New Yorker and Omni. Since 1985, he has taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He has also designed posters for the New York City Opera for many years. In 1994 he was awarded the Paris Prize for the Most Memorable Poster of the Year (International Oscar for the World's Most Memorable Poster "Prix Savignac 1994"), in 1995 he won the "New York - Capital of the World" poster competition. He is represented in collections such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Library of Congress Print Collection in Washington, D.C., the Wilanów Poster Museum and many other public and private collections around the world. He has been frequently visiting and exhibiting in Poland since the 1990s, and currently lives in Warsaw. His works are characterized by a specific type of imagery, which has earned him a reputation as a surrealist. Thanks to the surprising juxtapositions of picture elements, the combination of different plans and unusual scaling, as well as the narrative always present in Olbinski's works, his works enjoy unflagging interest and popularity.