HOUSE OF CARDS 1953 Erwin Axer ADAM BOWBELSKI POLISH POSTER

Original Polish 23 inch x 33 inch Poster for the 1953 Erwin Axer Polish Drama HOUSE OF CARDS (DOMEK Z KART), based on the play by Maria Koszyc & Emil Zegadlowicz and starring Tadeusz Bialoszczynski, Danuta Szaflarska, Szczepan Baczynski, Hanka Bielicka, Henryk Borowski, Janusz Jaron and Stanislaw Jaskiewicz.

Erwin Axer (1917 – 2012) was a Polish theatre director, writer and university professor. A long-time head of Teatr Wspólczesny (Contemporary Theatre) in Warsaw, he also staged numerous plays abroad, notably in German-speaking countries, in the USA and Leningrad (USSR).

Praise for the Red Army as the "liberator of Europe" always rung untrue in Poland due to the non-aggression pact between Hitler and Stalin. In 1953, the year Stalin died, Polish filmmaker Erwin Axer tried to reconcile the event and the ideology through his film House of Cards. According to Polish film scholar Piotr Zwierzchowski, "Erwin Axer's film portrays September 17 as the moment of Poland's liberation from its own oppressors." Poland in the interwar period is portrayed as a weak state, a veritable "house of cards," Zwierzchowski argues, adding it was an attempt to reverse collective memory.

The Poster Art is by Adam Bowbelski. Bowbelski was born in 1903 in Vladivostok, Russia. He studied architecture at the Warsaw Institute of Technology 1924-28 and matriculated at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts 1930-32. From 1929 to ‘39 he produced posters and advertising art for Kola Artystow Grafikow Reklamowych.

The poster is in fine unfolded (rolled) condition.