databases

collections, institutions & directories
Muzeum Plakatu w Wilanowie (Wilanow Poster Museum) : founded 4.VI 1968, making it the oldest in the World. An outstanding collection of posters, beautifully set in a park pavillon next to the baroque Jan III Sobieski' royal palace just outside Warsaw. Now with a long-overdue new look for their web site.
National Museum in Poznan : frequent poster exhibits and a nice collection; well worth the visit in person, but nothing online.
Muzeum Kinematografii w Lodzi : again, nothing online but a must-see if you're in Hollylodz, if only for the location that doubled as one of film sets in Wajda's "Ziemia obiecana".
Archiwum Panstwowe w Zamosciu : small online collection of film posters
Gallery of film posters from the Polish National Film Archives (Filmoteka Narodowa) in Warsaw. A huge online gallery of Polish film posters, both 'real' (pre-1989) and newer (non-designer)
Poster Page : superb private collector's site; well-written and informed, with good links to events & exhibits.
Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Los Angeles : extensive collection of Polish posters with Western theme. Unfortunately, not many trickled down to their Web pagehttp://theautry.org or go straight to archive here (keyword : Polish movie poster)
Wilson Connecticut State University / CIAA : a small collection of largely 70s and later posters.
Poster Archive of the MAK ( Austrian Museum of Applied / Contemporary Art ) : about 200 Polish posters among the 500 or so in the "film" category.
Lahti Poster Museum (no Web gallery)
Ogaki Poster Museum : very few notes on past exhibitions.
DePaul Art Museum in Chicago : small (about 200) collection of Polish posters
R.I.T. Wallace Library Polish Poster Collectionabout 450 posters in the museum collection.
not online : Polish Poster Foundation, Warsaw, ul. St. Kostki Potockiego 10/16, tel./fax +48 22 858 24 37, +48 22 842 26 06, e-mail : biennale@mnw.art.pl

commercial sites(for what it's worth, better web sites with good selection, many photos and/or good prices - are indicated with an *)
Barewalls Movie and Polish Posters and Prints + sister site FreeArt
* Chisholm Larsson Gallery (NY) : excellent collection of many better works, mid- to high prices. Be cautious of occassional name & title mistakes.
CineImages (Paris) : 80+ titles, mostly 70s in the E 100-200+ range, peppered with some nice rarities.
a site in Germany with mostly 80s and 90s
Dominique Besson Affiches Meyrargues, France; tiny selection of medium priced, high end Polish posters.
Film Art Gallery : 20+ posters, mostly 70s.
search this Berlin site for occasional cheap 70s
few, recent and expensive
Galeria Grafiki i Plakatu, Warsaw : a few posters lost between paintings and artists prints.
* Galeria Plakatu Krakow : from prominent collector, Mr Krzysztof Dydo; mostly later works.
Galeria Plakatu Warsaw : 80s and 90s with a few 60s thrown in. Low prices for newer pieces.
Greg Edwards' store in Greenwich, UK - about 50 posters from 40s to 80s.
* Intemporel Gallery in Paris : 100+ vintage works, inexpensive.
* KinoArt a new site in Germany, good selection of 450+ mid-priced posters, some classics but mostly recent.
gallery in Zurich +- 150 pieces, mostly mid- to high-priced 70s, with a few semi-classic bargains.
L'imagerie Gallery in North Hollywood : a few on web site, many more in stock.
* MPA Gallery in Rutherford, NJ : 50+ choice classic posters at reasonable prices.
* MR Polish Posters (Santa Fe) : great many examples, heavy towards several artists (Cieslewicz, Swierzy, Starowieyski & Flisak) with good pix but a lot of misspellings and surprisingly bad dating, particularily of the earlier (pre-70s) pieces. High prices for hard-to-find top posters.
LesAffiches.com : 50+ film posters on this Toulouse site.
* Philip Williams Posters in Tribeca. A huge gallery with incredible selection of all things poster, including sizable Polish collection. Their web site is being completely overhauled, showing only (increasing) fraction of their inventory.
Pigasus Gallery in Berlin : well over 1000 mostly newer works.
* Polish Posters Shop - good selection and rock-bottom prices if searching for 80s and 90s - a discount warehouse approach (with a "basket" and "product list"), but look hard for some bargain 60s and 70s.
* Posteritati Online Movie Posters database with some 500+ Polish film posters available for sale, 50s to 80s. The usual suspects litany of misspelled titles & names and wrong dates. Very high prices. Located in SoHo.
Projekt 26 gallery in London, original vintage posters
* The Reel Poster Gallery in London W2, original vintage posters, around 40-50 works in their database.
Terry Posters in Prague, Czech Republic : sizable collection (1500 +) of hard to navigate-to Polish posters (so let me save you the trouble). Only a fraction for sale. That in addition to more than 8.000 of Czech film posters. "The Terry Posters is both traditional and online shop run by the Union Film Ltd. and people who manage two Prague biggest art cinemas, Aero and Svõtozor".
Weidman Gallery in L.A., some Polish titles lost in the mix.
not online : Eastern European Art Co., ph.970-963-8789, email : Polishposters@aol.com
 

artists web sites :
Danuta Baginska-Andrejew (in Dutch)
a href="http://www.butenko.pl/">Bohdan Butenko (in Polish)
Andrzej Dudzinski (PL/GB)
Stasys Eidrigevicius (in English)
Andrzej Krajewski (in English)
Andrzej Mleczko (in Polish)
Jan Niksinski (PL/D/GB)
Andrzej Pagowski (PL/GB)
Wieslaw Rosocha (GB/CHI/J)
Jan Sawka (in English)
Mieczyslaw Wasilewski (PL/GB)
Zbigniew Warpechowski (PL/GB)
 

auctions & classifieds
Sotheby's auctions : hard to navigate, must call them for catalogs of past auctions if to be of any use.
Christie's auctions : rather confusing site but provides auction results by individual titles instead of anonymous lot #s.
Bonhams : UK- based auction site
Bruce Hesherson's Movie Posters : does most selling in no-reserve monthly batches of 100 -500+ posters, some of them Polish.
Heritage Auction Galleries : occasional finds and good prices for less-popular titles.
Poster connection : vintage posters at auction and through online gallery
Allegro : Polish auction site with some vintage (read : pre-1995) posters sold online by small collectors and several dealers. Prices in zloty (PLN) so check exchange rate & go straight to the "stare plakaty" ('old posters') category. Recent "improvements" no longer allow sorting reproductions from originals, thus be prepared for countless pages of junk.

articles (some links could be obsolete)
"The Polish Poster" by Danuta Boczar, 'Art Journal' 44 (1984), 16-27. Brief illustrated history of Polish poster art.
"Polish Poster and Western Films" by Frank Fox
"Post No Bills" by Anna Husarska, 'The New Yorker' 69 (1-10-94), 62-65.

video
"Freedom on the Fence : A Digital Documentary Project" (in progress)

net articles & blogs
Smashing Magazine article by Andrea Austoni.
Selection of posters by Andrew Lindstrom in a popular blog site.
Concise and precise history and analysis In Polish.
good overview of the subject In Polish.
a good article
another one
overview
70s
new minimalism v. Polish posters
Polish posters for Australian films
Polish posters for American films
re vintage posters
typical bolshe-bashing idiocy, well pre-drumpf "The annexation (???) of Poland by the Soviet Union, in the aftermath of the second world war (...) condemned the country to a further period of totalitarian dictatorship. The command economy imposed by the Soviets was unable, or unwilling, to deliver the material surpluses which might have raised living standards and supported the beginnings of consumer culture and advertising. In the event, Polish graphic designers were faced with little option but to work for the state". Poor dear advertising..
more vintage
better than originals

The "weird / funny / wrong idea" category ("Airplane", "Tootsie" and "Alien" featurnig prominently, with "Weekend at Bernie's" the all-time hit)
things lost in translation
pure weirdness (is it tho?)

newsgroups & Usenet
MoPo mailing list follow instructions. Daily emails from dealers trading (mostly) US posters.

bibliography
"A Century of Posters" by Martijn F. Le Coultre and Alston W. Purvis, V+K Publ., NL, 2003. An overview of XX Century European poster design. (concept, text, editor), Maria Kurpik (poster selection), Justyna Czerniakowska and Lech Majewski (design), published by Bosz, Lesko (PL) (2010) ; 240 pages, 24 x 33 cm, 537 color reproductions; hardcover; in english; ISBN 978-83-7576-059-1; a polish edition of "Ach! Plakat filmowy w Polsce" ISBN 978-83-7576-049-1 is also available.
"Contemporary Polish Posters in Full Color" by Joseph S.Czestochowski, NY Dover Publ., 1979. 46 color plates + some biographies.
"Katalog polskich plakatow filmowych", Filmoteka Narodowa, Warsaw; yearly : 1972-89.
"Jan Mlodozeniec" edited by Andrzej Stroka; Armarium, Warsaw, 6-2000; with texts by Zdzislaw Schubert and a cv by Jan Mlodozeniec; 160 pages, about 130 color illustrations, many full page; 25 x 32 cm; hardcover; ISBN 83-913481-1-3; in Polish and English.
"Muzeum ulicy" by the Poster Museum in Wilanow, Warsaw, 1996. Over 300 illustrations, essays and biographies.
"Polish Graphic Arts and Posters" by Ksawery Piwocki, Warsaw, 1966.
"Polski plakat filmowy" by Krzysztof Dydo, Krakow, 1996. In Polish and English. History, essays, 800+ color illustrations and comprehensive bibliography.
Also by Mr Dydo : "Mistrzowie polskiej sztuki plakatu", Bielsko-Biala, Buffi, 1995 & "100 lat polskiej sztuki plakatu", BWA Krakow, 1993. In English and Polish, with substantial sections on film posters, essays, biographies, etc.
"Plakatkunst in Polen", Das Landesmuseum Meinz, 1975.
"Polish Posters" by Frank Fox : in "Posters : Identification and Price Guide" by Tony Fusco, 2nd ed., Avon Books, NY, 1994. Also in "The Poster : A Worldwide Survey and History" by Alain Weill, G.K.Hall, Boston, 1985.
"Polish Posters : Combat on Paper, 1960-90" by Frank Fox, Katonah Museum, NY State, 1996.
"Polski plakat filmowy" by Tadeusz Kowalski, Filmowa Agencja Wydawnicza, Warsaw, 1957.
"Western amerykanski" by Kevin Mulroy, Autry Museum of Western Heritage, LA, 1999. Essays and 159 illustrations on Polish posters with Western theme.

fun
make yr own
name the movies from the posters

Polish films in the US
The Society for Arts 38 Annual Polish Film Festival in Chicago, November 2026

for something completely different
this and that

even more different
war-nerd
for outstanding devotion to duty
some serious hotties still, true beauty lies within
should you travel no more Lonely Planet