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March Issue |
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Resources |
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Poster for Puccini's Tosca, 1998. Original without text
is acylic on canvas, 32 x 22 in.
 orn in Poland in
1945, Rafal Olbinski was educated in the architectural department of
Warsaw Politechnical School, but within a few years after graduation
he turned to poster design. Under the totalitarian communist system,
posters became a means of political and societal subterfuge: Artists
could camouflage meanings in a surrealistic style that abounded in
absurdities, paradoxes, visual puns, and transformations. Posters
became Poland's leading art form, and Olbinski became a major name
in the field.
In 1981 he
immigrated to the United States and soon was established as a
prominent painter, illustrator, and designer. Olbinski has won more
than one hundred awards for his work, which has appeared on the
covers of international magazines and in posters for major
corporations. His originals are in distinguished museums and
corporate and private collections.
A longtime lover of
jazz, Olbinski admits that he came to admire opera relatively late.
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Poster for Mozart's The Magic Flute, 1998. Original without text is acrylic on canvas, 32 x 22 in.
Nevertheless, his more than forty opera posters are among the most
memorable ever made. When undertaking an opera poster, Olbinski
begins by reading the libretto many times and listening to the
score. His purpose is to reduce the libretto to one sentence, one
concept, which will become the mainspring for his artwork. He then
does some rough pencil sketches that are vetted to the client. Once
a choice has been made, he begins working on a canvas, usually 30 by
20 inches, in acrylic paints. Frequently he uses live models,
idealizing their features and the overall image to better
encapsulate his theme.
As Christopher Mount
explains in Olbinski and the Opera, "This kind of extremely
labor-intensive work for poster production would certainly create
economic hardship if it weren't for an interesting arrangement.
After the poster is printed the painting is then sold as fine art in
art galleries worldwide." Olbinski and the Opera beautifully
reproduces forty of the artist's posters for operatic productions.
Soon to have its second printing, the book is published by Patinae,
Inc., of Stamford, Connecticut, which is the sole representative of
Olbinski's artwork. Sherri and Ken Nahan of Patinae are his agents.
For more information, visit www.patinae.com.
--The Editor
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